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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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In Reply to: Call for comments on tubes vs. transistors posted by theaudiohobby on July 15, 2006 at 21:59:29:
There are great variation among both transistors and tubes in amps and elsewhere. I estimate that I have owned 15 different tube amps and 7 tube preamps or linestages and 22 transistor amp and 15 transistor preamps or linestages. Presently, I use a transistor line stage and phono stage and tube amplifiers. I have heard tube electronics that are slow, smeared, and boring and transistor electronics that is so edgy that you have to leave the room. No doubt this is by design in the case of tubes and to reach a price point in the case of transistors.I must say that I buy speakers to match my SET amps but bought Acapella LaCampanellas despite their 93 db efficiency. They overtax my Reimyo PAT777, 8 watts amp in my large room and given my listening levels. I try to match real-life levels. In the past before I rediscovered SETs, I had many big transistor amps, but none have met my tests in the last 15 years. The 47 Labs 25 watter came very close, however. Preamps or linestages, however, have been more competitive in my opinion. I have heard few transistor preamps that give satisfactory body to the music with most sounding thin. A few have had the dynamics to challege tube preamps. Most tube preamps, however, have poor and ill-defined bass and lack high end extension.
I have raved over the years about the H-Cat P-12 transistor linestage and find the latest 5X version preeminent. Nothing I have ever heard approaches it in realism, which is a combination of soundstaging, perfect bass, and dynamics that drive my Reimyo nuts.
Again, I know this contributes nothing in terms of technical considerations, but suggests that there is no simple answer. Tubes are all the rage in Europe and Asia and to a lesser degree in the US. Tubes have a major limitation as no new production tube even gets close to the performance that you will get out of the best NOS tubes of the 50s, 60s, and70s, which for the most part are increasingly rare and expensive. By contrast, transistors and ICs are getting better.
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Follow Ups
- I know this is a technical forum, but I have enough personal experience to know there is no definitive answer to this. - Norm 07:30:18 07/16/06 (1)
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