2. amps-preamps
  3. 1031724377

Tubes Do It -- Transistors Don't.

I never thought transistor amps could hold a candle to tube amps. They just never seem to get the "wholeness of the sound of an instrument" quite right. SS doesn't allow an instrument (brass, especially) to "bloom" out in the air, forming a real body of an instrument. Rather, it sounds like a facsimile; a somewhat truncated, stripped version of the real thing. Kind of like taking 3D down to 2-1/2D.

I also hear differences in the actual space the instruments are playing in. With tubes, the space appears continuous, with each instrument occupying a believable part in that space. With SS, the space seems segmented, darker, and less continuous, with instruments somewhat disconnected from each other, almost as if they were panned in with a mixer. I won't claim this to be an accurate description, but I find it hard to describe these phenomena.

There is also the issue of interest -- SS doesn't excite me or maintain my interest. It sounds boring. Something is missing.

Yet, a tube friend of mine recently heard a Pass X-350 amp and thought it sounded great, and better in many ways than his Mac MC-2000 on his Nautilus 800 Signatures. I was shocked to hear this from him. I wasn't present for this comparison, and the Pass is now back at the dealer.

Tubes vs. SS is an endless debate, as has been seen in these forums. I haven't had any of the top solid state choices in my system, so I can't say how they fare compared to tubes. The best SS amp I had was a McCormack DNA-1 Rev. A, but it still didn't sound like my tube amps, VT-100 Mk II & Cary V-12.

Have any of you have tried SS amps that provided these qualities I describe in tubes? Or, did you also find that you couldn't get these qualities from a SS amp?
kevziek

Showing 2 responses by karls

karls
332 posts
 
I have to weigh in on the SS side when it comes to amps, not because they are all better, but because a few of them are. While I've heard very good tube amps and can appreciate their abilities, I've never heard one that could do bass so that it sounded real. The current and damping just can't handle it, and so I always end up "hearing" that it's a tube amp. It sticks in the back of my mind and won't go away, reminding me every time I hear the thump that I'm listening to a tube amp. I suppose my value system would be very different if I only listened to chamber music and vocalists, and I have no doubt I would be sitting here extolling the virtues of tube amps. SS amps, on the other hand, have gotten to the point where a few of them really CAN seem to disappear from the chain. Not many, and not until recently, but they're out there. My Ayre V-5 is the first amp I've ever owned, SS or tube, which allows me to actually say (the majority of the time, anyway) that "I can't tell it's there." And in my mind, there is no bigger compliment that can be paid to any piece of equipment.

This doesn't address the obvious and more difficult question, which is whether tube or SS preamps are better. I think tubes have a lot more going for them in a preamp, and may always have the upper hand over SS in this application.
karls
332 posts
 
I've been very curious about the Berning but never tried it. Do you have any experience with driving lower-impedance speakers with it? My speakers are a ruler-flat 3.5 Ohms with near-zero phase throughout the entire audio band, except for a single closed-box peak in the bass, so what do you think? I've talked with one zh270 owner who felt that this would be pushing it a little too much, that the amp probably couldn't handle that kind of load. But if you have any comments, I'd love to hear them.

I appreciate the Atmasphere approach, but I can't bring myself to burn that much juice or to think about the retubing costs!
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