What is the deal are these collectors items?
I never quiet understood the appeal of tubes, though for some I guess the nostalgia is worth it.
Nostalgia ain't got nuttin' to do with it. Hollow state amps simply sound better since you're starting with a device that's much more linear than any transistor. Better linearity, better sonics. Huge amounts of gNFB to force a very nonlinear device into linearity just doesn't cut it. There's always something missing when you do that.
I think the attraction to tube amps is the non-linear response as opposed to being linear which would defeat the purpose as semiconductor devices are very linear. I think you got things backwards. I too have compared sounds and for some reason I think a tube amp does have a unique sound that digital electronics as failed to reproduce.
Yeah, it's cool how a hollow state amp can create pleasing detail that didn't exist in the original material.There was so much new detail that simply went unheard from that SS amp.
Yeah, it's cool how a hollow state amp can create pleasing detail that didn't exist in the original material.
THD measurements of both amps would be much more convincing, IMHO.
Two things I know. Tube amplifiers produce distortion from the originating signal which imparts all those 'feelings' that people seem to love to associate with high fidelity audio, which means they're non-linear. Modern solid state amps that use any kind of decent feedback will produce audio with absolutely phase perfect quality, the human ear should NEVER come into play as far as audio production goes, if someone prefers a particular 'feeling' to their music that's what EQ's are for as the non-linearity of a tube amp can be easily monitored compared to the input signal and a solid state amp could easily be tuned to match those characteristics.
High fidelty and 'good sounding' are VERY different things. A perfectly re-produced sine or square wave will drive a human being nearly insane after any length of time. The 'warm' characteristics that a tube lends to it's originating signal is in fact distortion it is however by some considered pleasing.
I wonder why they don't use tubes at biomedical stuff, at avionics and military stuff. Beats me, then.Nostalgia ain't got nuttin' to do with it. Hollow state amps simply sound better since you're starting with a device that's much more linear than any transistor. Better linearity, better sonics. Huge amounts of gNFB to force a very nonlinear device into linearity just doesn't cut it. There's always something missing when you do that.
Those who think they know everything really annoy those of us who do
Constraining the argument to facts:
* Tubes add even harmonics to the signal. Have seen them. They're not some crazy fantasy of mine.
* Transistors are VERY, VERY lame when clipping occurs. Nothing that negative feedback doesn't solve.
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