And on a related note, what measurements - if there are any - show the difference in sound between SS and tubes?
Could one see this on a frequency chart?
I suspect that this is one of those areas where measurements tell us very little.
Tubes, tone, and old age.
FWIW, just a short story about how things can change. 30 years ago I had two high power tube amps with SED KT88's. Bought a backup set (or two). Sold amp. What to do with tubes. Nothing, I just put them in a big drawer. Pulled them out every few years and always found them powerful but a tad bright. Never got an amp which served them well and I kinda forgot about them.
I got old. Needed new KT88's. What the hell, I pulled out the old SED's. Interestingly (to me at least) the upper frequency retained its clarity but what was bright in yesteryear, now matched the natural loss of some high frequencies in my hearing due to age. Hog heaven!
Point, if any, to this story is when you go out to buy tubes don't forget that the sound of tubes can and will vary because of the hearing of the seller as well as his knowledge of how they will sound in your system.
Showing 2 responses by ossicle2brain
atmaspher
Yes. Look at distortion vs frequency- if it begins rising much below about 10KHz you will have a brightness problem since higher ordered harmonics will be higher than the THD suggests. The other thing to look at is the distortion profile. Smoother sounding amps have a greater degree of 2nd and 3rd harmonic than amps that tend to sound bright and harsh. This is simply because the 2nd and 3rd in the latter amps is insufficient to mask the higher orders. Our ears interpret the higher orders as harsh and bright using the same metrics that cause tone color in musical instruments. ********************
Thanks that's very interesting. So we can sort of measure these subtle differences but not really. And is the binaural nature of hearing ever part of it? The subtle phase differences of stereo?
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