Tubes, tone, and old age.

Measure using technology, science and an understanding of how the ear/brain works ( over long and short periods ), AND listen ;-) 

We have always had tipped up speakers… long long before we had aging Audiophiles… why ? short term easy sell…. but doing zip to advance accuracy in music reproduction….. like many flavorizer products out there….

Knowing what kind of distortion you like is sign of an excellent audiophile…..

@noromance 

 

Or maybe they prefer tubes over solid state because solid state has distortion that they don’t like.

👍 Tube or transistor distortion. Pick your preferred coloration/flavor.

Charles

FWIW, when a speaker or piece of equipment is perceived as bright, it is not the high frequencies but the upper midrange that is troublesome.

I’ve been running tubes since about 1973. I used to retube my ARC SP 3-a-1 with period Telefunken 12ax7s which were about 10 bucks a tube. Finding true unused ones from the ’60s or ’70s is not impossible but they are expensive now.

Everything I run is tubes except for the home theater. (Even that was three ARC tube amps at one point until I decided it was stupid).

My vintage system uses a matched quad of GEC KT66s from the era. Not easy to find and if and when, might have to be replaced with a modern production tube.

The line stage in the main system only likes period DR 6h30s, a tube that is very scarce.

The rest I source from Lamm (for the amps), Allnic (replaced all the audio circuit tubes with Holland Siemens). I roll the rectifier in that, and have a bunch of grail tubes- I like the GEC u-52 in my system, given how it voices.

I’m no tube guru. I rely on trusted vendors. Andy is the best, but he’s slow and old school. I’m not buying bulk- but want enough to have back ups.

Tubes are truly a pain in the ass these days, given sonics. More power to you if your gear sounds good on modern production tubes. I’ve found that I do better with other, older tubes, and that’s where you wind up going down the rabbit hole.

Prefer, not Better