Tube amps and a Stradivarius

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You are right, a designer must use feedback that is always a compromise but transistors are still more accurate (don’t sound better) than tubes if you look at them on a scope. Another fare worse aspect is how transistors distort when clipped they sound awful but tubes sound smooth and forgiving. Audiophiles use underpowered amps in general, it takes a lot of power to produce loud sounds from some of our big not so efficient speakers. Tube amps are always way lower power than ss amps but because of the nice distortion it doesn’t matter as much. But physics is physics it takes a certon amount of power to produce a high volume from the speaker and it is very rare that tube amps have even close to enough power in fact it is the exception that even ss amps have enough power to produce movie theater volumes at home. By the way even golden ears have a hard time hearing <15% distortion at high volumes.

Movie theaters use solid state amplifiers, so your point isn't a very good one. I've heard better dynamics in home theater systems than at movie theaters.

Movie theaters use ss equipment because tubes would be a nightmare the tubes would always be sounding not like new and it would be nearly impossible to get the LF response needed to make spec. Sure there are tube amps that can put out a lot of power but the tubes are very expensive, unreliable, and degrade immediately after putting them in the slot they also are about 90% inefficient creating more heat than power. 

My amps are the BHK 300s by PF Audio they make sense to me because the front end is tubes and the power side is mosfet, gives you the best of both. Guitar amps are always tubes they need the ring, warmth and distortion characteristics that tubes can bring, but now guitar amps can be ss and simply be programed to emulate other tube amps, the best of these emulators can fool anyone.

invalid Just asking an honest question, I assume you have tube amps, as I do as well. What sort of system do you use to change all the tubes just change them all each year or 6 months, they start sounding bad very slowly and It's hard to realize the sound is degrading, like a frog being boiled very slowly eventually you have dead sound.

Yes, in the end, it’s about the music. What’s it sound like? Hmmm.