Tubes vs Solid State - Imaging, Soundstaging, 3D


I have limited experience with tubes having had a couple tube amps with Gold Lion KT88s and EL34s. The majority of amps I have owned have been solid state. In my experience, SS always seems to image more sharply and offer the deepest, clearest field.

Is this common?
128x128michaelkingdom

Showing 13 responses by wolf_garcia

Tubes degenerate very slightly over time and there is no significant audible change until they wear out, conventional (or convenient) myths notwithstanding. Tubes are more fun, and tube amp owners are usually better looking people likely due to the fact that they are having more fun. The one exception is that tube amp owners may have singed fingers from trying to dust around their tubes when hot. Harmonic distortion content is the primary difference tonally between tube and SS amps (2nd order, 3rd order, lunch order), and note that SS amp advertising hype says "tube like" exactly 37 times more often than tube amp hype says "SS like." The biggest advantage of tubes is the ability to enjoy "tube rolling" as it is the rare SS amp owner that says, "Marge, I'm heading out to the transistor store to score a set of Mitsubishis for the Onkyo." My tube amp images so well I've actually gone through what I thought must be the Carnegie Hall exit only to fall into my hot tub.
All SS amps (other than hybrids) are 100% guaranteed to not use tubes. They excell at that. Good tube amps excell at "low level detail" and are quiet, or zillions of serious listeners wouldn't be using them. Does anybody really say, "I like tube amps SO much I'll put up with crappy, distorted no low level detail weak sound?" I've spent a lot more money over the years on SS hifi amps than tube amps (including reliability issues with some otherwise well regarded SS stuff), except guitar amps...tube guitar amps continue to bury attempts to market SS amps, although SS keeps trying to raise its little head up in that market (modeling amps, tiny practice amps, etc). Pretty much every professinal guitar player, except a few jazz dudes, use tube amps. I don't claim well designed SS hifi amps suck, that would be kind of lame...I own a few I like. I do enjoy modern tube amps more though, as the designers seem to have figured out how to get slam and power out of 'em and currently they give nothing up to SS in audio clarity. They didn't used to (really...they didn't), but they do now. For mirthless Melbguy1 I'll add that I DO enjoy spending money on tubes...there...I mentioned it...it's fun.
Metralla...I was being ironic...or sarcastic...or something...Since when did people start taking this stuff so literally? Is this an Aussie thing? Also, it is difficult for me to get by the fact that Isochronism has a Sunn 2000s, and that it's only 120 watts...I thought the 200s was 100 watts, and the 2000s was much more...now I have to look this up. I looked it up, and yeah 120 to 150 watts...200s only 60 watts! With the 2X15 cab (a classic and the best in its day) it seemed like more juice due to efficiency I suppose. Off topic, but I can't help it.
It's good that Mirthless Mel is taking a break from this forum before the wheels come off of what's left of his rational mind. If you have to ask if my opening statement was ironic, I have to assume you're maybe Dutch.

I'm not a proponent of anything in particular, I merely respond to what I know is bullshit, or when people agree with me, as I am clearly weak and need support...my guitar amps, especially a recently acquired 18 watt class A one, are EXTREMELY high current. And chicks dig it. Otherwise I suggest re-reading my posts to see the truth and calmly displayed well reasoned personl opinions I've garnered from years of being an unsophisticated charlatan.
Only three scenarios here: 1. He actually DID lose a family member and chose an amazingly inappropriate use of this event to engender sympathy, 2. Nobody died and he's grasping at straws which is slightly weirder, and 3. He's joking, although seeing the post from Charles1dad I somehow doubt that and can only conclude this guy is 12 (that could be the 4th scenario).

Sorry, but I simply don't think this forum should be used as a condolence generator...that's just inelegant, cringe inducing, and an utter buzzkill.
I may have mentioned this before, but we used 2 (music store lent to us) 2000S amps with the "jumbo" JBL loaded 2X15 Sunn cabs (weird, larger cabinet, but no argument from us!), and our own 200S with the standard cab when we opened for Led Zepellin in 1969. That's a lot of Sunn on stage, even back then. John Paul Jones asked if he could use the bass rig for the Zep set and we said, "hell yeah ya limey bastard" or something like that. Zep proceeded to erase our set from the collective memory.
It's an interesting proposition to compare high cost SS amps to low cost tube amps. I've hear various Boulder, Pass, Krell, and other SS amps and think they work really well...some of those cost more than a nice car. I've also lived with a modest factory modded Jolida tube amp that cost a fraction of some well regarded SS amps, and, to me, sounds better in every way, although this could be system dependant and due to the fact that I'm an idiot...but an idiot who saved thousands over the cost of a Boulder.
As a musician, I have played in a room with a "black background"...it was empty, and the manager sent us home early (true story...a club on a mysterious empty military base in hills above Honolulu). Does this information help anybody?
If Mirthless Melbguy1 had continued to harass me with his odd private messages wherin he weirdly plays a sympathy card, I had planned to post 'em just to embarass him out of my mail! He saved me from this...whew...and again, he MUST be joking, or clearly in need of therapy...put my responses in their proper time stamped order and note that, for me anyway, I was relatively gentle with this strange dude. I suggest people who are too emotionally unstable to go out with their "big boy" pants on even to a discussion site, stay home...unless he really is messing with me...in which case it's ALL GOOD. Here's the initial email he left out and I happily include:

From: melbguy1 (David Allen)
Your personally vindictive passing comments to me in that thread were cold, humiliating and deeply hurtful, and likely to cause damage to my reputation on this forum. I have had a family tragedy and am not coping well at the moment. Did you ever stop to think before you atttack someone and accuse them of all those hurtful things??? I just wanted you to know that.

I re-read my comments and thought they were typical of what I always say, tragedy update notwithstanding. Personally vindictive indeed!
Neil Diamond? Now I'm REALLY upset...last word from me on the dearly departed (from the forum anyway), ALOHA!

I thought I'd get more hiss than I do from my Jolida, but it's actually less than what I had from my previous SS amps...including some well regarded designs. Again, maybe I'm lucky. You have to stick your ear next to the tweeter to hear any noise at all and except for LP surface noise, all is quiet on the Eastern front, except in my guitar room where it's noisy as hell and I just ignore it.