A Black Box to Solve Everything

@knotscott 

Tubes for guitar and tubes for hi fi have very different objectives. Audible distortion for a guitar amp is a desirable feature, not so for a hi fi amp.

FYI, distortion ("overdrive") is not the sole goal or attribute of guitar amps/pedals that attempt to mimic tubes!  "Clean" tube tones are as prized as "dirty" tube tones as is the ability of some of them to mimic a variety of amps that are associated with different types of tubes. Some examples include but are not limited to: 6L6/6V6 for Fender, EL34 for Marshall, EL84 for Vox, etc. This seems quite in line with what the OP states:

My thinking is that of a black box with switches and knobs to adjust harmonic distortion to mimic different tube types. 

 

 

@koestner 

I have a BSG QOL Signal Completion processor in my system and I use it most of the time. It is not adjustable and I would not describe it as adding any sort of tube distortion. It affects the phase information in the signal and adds depth and focuses the imaging. I suppose one could describe these effects as tube virtues but I've never heard any piece of tube gear that has such a dramatic impact on the signal. I also have a Yaqin tube buffer which produces a very subtle difference - nothing close to what the QOL provides.

BTW, I've experimented with several signal processors and the QOL is the only one I use. It adds a very nice effect.

Isn’t this whole conversation a bit ironic? Trying to create a high tech solid state device to mimic the natural, 3 dimensional sound of a simple tube based circuit?  I always thought that the primary reasons why good quality tube amps can sound so good is the relative simplicity of their design w/far less components on the signal path & the high voltages they can swing? Not sure if an additional “ black box” would help this ?

Indeed, @jonwolfpell. I wince when I see someone describe an amp as adding "tube warmth" to the sound. That’s not what good tube amps do; what they do is not create the "cold, hard, dry" sound of bad solid state. I always loved the term J. Gordon Holt used to characterize the sound of the best tube amps: liquidly transparent.

I vividly recall the first time I heard "grain" in the sound of electronics. I was already aware of the term and concept from photography, and to then hear tiny little "clumps of sound" in the sonic "picture" a hi-fi was creating (one with solid state pre and power amps), in contrast to the grain-free liquidity of the sound the ARC system (pure tube, not hybrid) I was comparing it with was creating, was clearly audible.

The appeal of tubes to me has always been not what they add, but what they don’t.

@nonoise ....I don't want one of Those.

I'd have slapped it through the desk AND the floor beneath it X times by now....😏