I really like Kjweisners take on things. Another tidbit, fwiw, is that the solid state route typically is more prone to higher frequency harmonic distortion than tubes. A popular school of thought is that our ears and brains find this type of distortion more unpleasant than the higher magnitude/lower frequency distortion that has to be dealt with in tube designs. It may be that our ears interpret lower order harmonic distortion the same way they interpret delayed reflection of sound from building surfaces, and so the distortion can come across as pleasant and natural sounding, or at least not very offensive. Or maybe not. Hope you like the new pre-amp!
Tubes in Hi-End Preamps
I’m confused. If some of you engineer types could pipe in on this subject, it would be greatly appreciated. I know a little, but not a lot about electricity. I’ve been in the battery industry for 20 years and have taken two semesters of college electronics, so I know just enough to be dangerous.
For 15 years, I’ve been sans preamp. The idea being that I don’t want anything messing up the source signal. That limits me to one source only though, and I’ve finally caved in to the need to be able to access multiple sources with the turn of a knob.
It’ll be nice to finally have hifi sound when I watch DVDs, and I would like to spin vinyl again after 20 years away from analog. To that end, I have an Audio Illusions Modulus 3A unit on its way now.
OK, here’s my question:
Why is it that many higher end preamps, Audio Research for example, that are said to be “neutral” and “transparent” sounding use tubes in their designs? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and less expensive to build a solid state circuit that produces clean, neutral, and transparent sound? Aren’t tubes supposed to “color” the sound?
I've noticed the presence of a lot more equipment out there (the latest generation of some designs) with tube output sections that are described as not sounding "tubey." What's the point then of having tubes?
I hope I haven’t opened a can of worms here.
For 15 years, I’ve been sans preamp. The idea being that I don’t want anything messing up the source signal. That limits me to one source only though, and I’ve finally caved in to the need to be able to access multiple sources with the turn of a knob.
It’ll be nice to finally have hifi sound when I watch DVDs, and I would like to spin vinyl again after 20 years away from analog. To that end, I have an Audio Illusions Modulus 3A unit on its way now.
OK, here’s my question:
Why is it that many higher end preamps, Audio Research for example, that are said to be “neutral” and “transparent” sounding use tubes in their designs? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and less expensive to build a solid state circuit that produces clean, neutral, and transparent sound? Aren’t tubes supposed to “color” the sound?
I've noticed the presence of a lot more equipment out there (the latest generation of some designs) with tube output sections that are described as not sounding "tubey." What's the point then of having tubes?
I hope I haven’t opened a can of worms here.