Where do tubes matter most???


Here's a question from a newbie:

Where do you get the most of that nice "tube sound"? Some say the ratio of importance of tubes in the pre-amp vs power amp is 75/25, others say it's really 50/50. Some say a good hybrid amp will get you most of the way there, others seem to be more all or nothing.

I see a lot of Hybrids with pre-amp tubes, but I never see any hybrids that have solid state preamp with a tube amplifler. I'm assuming this is because It's less expensive to drive inefficient speakers with a solid state amplifier, but do considerations of musicality and sound fit into this design?
lastwaltz

Showing 1 response by marktaylor22fb

Its a discussion that has gone on for years since the advent of transistor from bell lab's, one a transistor is a current device, a tube is a voltage device, most transistor amps are directly coupled to the reactive speaker load and thus can produce extreem low frequency response because of the nature of the device and no output transformer to saturate at low frequency however a speaker is a reactive load, not a totally resistive which is another complete topic in its self, but in a tube amp in push pull configuration, the even order harmonics are cancelled out by the output transformer and since the transformer has a windings in the secondary it produces a better matching to the speaker load and not getting into audio transformer design and therory the transformer acts as a choke and a capacitor kind of like sponge it is able to asorb large peak current and not totally reflect it back on the tube its self to try and put it simply so the amp produces a soft clipping many other things take place in both type amps and it can be discussed for another 30+ years or so.
Both devices have have their place in audio, I use a transistor amp crossed over at 250 hz down for subs and from
100 hz and above I love tube amps mixing and matching can produce cool results in any system providing the frequency response is suited for the amp used.