Tube amps are my favorite. They can sound clean or tubey and either way they are the most musical and most coherent and sweet sounding. They give you just enough watts and they sing to your soul and can handle voltage swing and impedance drops like an Olympian in their prime.
I’m in this camp also. Some other companies have managed to use transistors in the variety of JFETS, SITs, and ramp up the bias on T03 cans to make them single ended, hence Class A in sound, which to some degree, mimics some tube characteristics. Although engineering trickery can get close, and full digital types like Devialet, use all out DSP processing to mimic tube equipment fairly well. Still though, tube rectification, tube follower and gain stage on the signal processing side just, in my humble opinion, is hard to beat. As the saying goes, different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes. Some folks like that up front and digital sound, like say Levinson, Constellation, Soulutions, etc. I do to, to a certain extent, (I’d kill to get my mitts on a pair of mono Levinson #33H amps! Hah!), but the depth, imaging, midrange sweetness and that outlook on life through rose colored glasses in tubes, for me, is hard to beat, hah!
@@frostycanada6404 cayin makes really nice things, i have never had a speaker setup but i do have a couple of good headphones & the cayin ha-1a mkii being my tube amp & its sooooo nice.. looks nice, built nice & sounds yummy yums
I miss building audio amplifiers from scratch. I remember one of my first amps using the 12ax7. Then it was transistors using the Darlington configuration....ah those were the days. Now most amps are class D using MOSFETs. How times have changed.
My granddad worked at Philips in valve R&D. Back in the day, the internal discussions where always about triodes and and pentodes and what sounded better. (Contrary to what you may think, there where a lot of audiophiles working at Philips back then.) Later when he was in his 90's he refused to talk about his work because from what he could see they where all obsolete and thus, his work has all been for nothing. It would have been be nice for him to know how high end audio would develop 30 years later.
That a great story Hugh & I'm sure your granddad had many good 1st hand Phillips "shop" stories to tell !! ....Back in '74, when working on Bell System Network long distance lines, we had worked all week replacing our Super Reliable vacuum tubes with the latest "HIN" (hybrid integrated network) semiconductor direct plug-in "tubes" along 30 miles repeater routes.....Everything seemingly great until the Saturday summer storm .....Multiple outage failures Everywhere up & down the route !!!! ...Seems like Semiconductor Bell Labs guys had no idea how Well the 30 old tubes tolerated (& thrived) on electrical storm HV spikes & surges !!! .....Worked late down the "line" plugging the ole "reliable" tubes back in to get the LD line back up !!
@@Theineluctable_SOME_CANT Cant see the gear and say that this gear is Hi- Fi before experience the sound which depends on the whole acoustic illusion Hi fi may be present only in one location of room but usually can be experianced also around that room.
@@Theineluctable_SOME_CANT that may be the greatest oversimplification I’ve heard in a while. There are plenty of outstanding vacuum tube based systems, and it really weakens your argument to paint every single vacuum tube based product with the same brush.
I used exceptional mono tube radio in 70ties and was highly excited to turn to solid with all that flying above data. When I did it only after few months of fails with setting it up I started to dream to re-purchase again the same old radio
Mr. Scratch is a smart guy. After he retubed his entire amplifier he bought two more full complements of tubes from Russian companies. Perhaps one day even hybrid amplifiers will sound incredible and some of them actually do at a very high price but I love tube amplifiers. They make all the difference to me and my system.
I do not think an all tube amplifier will ever go away. They will remain a niche product that will always have a following regardless of the hassles of their care and feeding. They just have too much romance surrounding them and their sonic character. Just like records never really went away, there were a few of us that greatly enjoyed their sound, and never gave them up back when CD was king. No hybrid fully sounds the same as a tube amp. SET amps and the like will be around as long as Audiophiles are.
@Rui Albano ... this is like asking a hot rod guy if they want a 500 hp Honda or a 500 hp big block. There's more than one way to skin a cat and they both sound different.
I have a T+A PA 3000 HV integrated amp. T+A designed it's HV "high voltage" series around the philosophy that Paul just described. They run at 360 volts. As in tube equipment, the voltages ensure that the amplification devices are working well within their operating parameters. As designed, the HV models utilize only about 20 percent of their amplification transistors’ available range. This greatly reduces non-linearities. Their design goal, is to mate the naturalness of tubes with the speed of solid-state.
I have Harman Kardon ultrawideband sound. Tubes make heat and they can break. Heat stresses a lot the components, it's very fragile. Back in the day they even had tube testers in the stores so you can check it and buy replacements. Not sure if modern tubes are different?!? Probably just used less (back in the day it was used every day much more heavily) but there are a lot of disadvantages. This type of technology was replaced for a reason. It's like saying I dont like LED light, I get a petroleum lamp because it flickers so nice but also burn my house down and smoke my room. Looks nice maybe but not practical.
Brief description of my experience: I design power amps, I did not start out as amp designer, actually a real EE for my whole career specialized in analog RF and system design, only got into hifi power amp design after I retire. To be honest, power amp is NOT the most challenging thing I faced. I don't have the schematic of the high end amp of PS, but I have the Delta 200 schematic. They are supposed to be high end amp. From what I see, it's just simple cook book basic design with cascode LTP with 1.4K resistor load as IPS that BARELY has gain, simple VAS and cheap double emitter follower OPS with 4 pairs of output transistors only. Only one thing a little different is the bias generator which I do not see the advantage. It is a cheap design, but they are supposed to be high end company, this amp must not be cheap......for this design? this is a "play it safe" design with very low loop gain. Absolutely no better(if even) than my Acurus 200 that is a lot cheaper. Also, I seriously question about PS audio after I look at they sell AC power conditioner for thousands of dollars. I am not saying power side is not important, in fact it's is very important. BUT you care enough about the quality of the power source, do it INSIDE the amp bypassing the power cord!!! You can use regulated power supply if you want to to stabilize the voltage. Use SMPS to save weight. If you KNOW how to design, know how to design with EMC, there is NO problem using SMPS regulated power supply. I personally put a SMPS at the frontend of an electronmeter amp that measure pA of current in relative high speed with great success. It's NOT that hard to design a regulated supply with quick response to load demand. You don't pay thousands for a power regenerator!!! As for tubes, I believe it's the old folks that hang onto the good old days. They still look for the old sound like they still hang onto the turn table. Don't mistaken that I am young, I retired already. I just never stop to learn new things. I don't have a lot of experience on hifi tube stuffs, one guy brought a "good quality" tube preamp over, he only played for 2 minutes and he took it off the system!!! I design a lot of guitars amps. I honestly can say the tube amps are NOT better sounding than the SS amp. Sadly, I think people that design audio electronics are mostly hobbyists, not really a real engineer, or at best got an EE degree and straight into designing audio. They missed the whole experience of the rest of the electronic technology. Just look at those schematics, one copying another, change a little and call it their own. If one only work on audio electronics, they are missing the moon, all the modern knowledge of the electronic age.
Great video. I am also a user and avid fan of tubes. My usage has mostly been in bass and guitar amplifiers. The problem that I am experiencing is the quality of tubes being manufactured today. There have been tube sets that I have ordered for customer repair and maintenance that are so bad that I had problems just trying to bias the amp. I tried all of the tricks from matching to warming up the amps for hours with signal going through them just to get a successful bias result. Then, there are some that are less problematic and bias fine. The consistency seems to be all over the place. It seems that I'm either too picky or manufacturers of equipment are not raising the bar high enough. Case in point. I own a Manley reference tube microphone that after a few months, started developing stage noises and the sound became dark when compared to other tube pics that I own. I had cut several vocal tracks that sounded superb when I first bought the mic. Manley customer service sent me a tube which they consider "mic grade." That replacement tube cured the strange noise issue, but sounded like a totally different microphone. I sent the tube back to them telling them to please send me a tube that sounded like the one that came inside the mic. They sent me another tube. This replacement "mic grade" tube, sounded smooth and silky, but the self noise was a problem when recording anything other that rock music. I kept the mic with the second replacement tube and only use it for rock vocal work. I find that tubes are hit or miss these days. Back in the 70's when I was first working on tube amps, I would run to the electronics store and purchase six 6550's, pop them into the amplifier, perform a bias adjustment, and that amp sounded fantastic and biased up like a top. These were off the shelf GE tubes before boutique or matched sets were ever offered. But, I agree with the subject matter in your video that nothing will ever beat a tube for HiFi.
I grew up with mass market solid state in the 90’s. I find tubes generally sound better, probably due to being simpler design, transformer sound etc. I think the “lightbulb” amps will be around for a long time, just as records are still around.
As I understand, they almost died off during the rush to solid state, but a few die-hard audiophiles predominately in Japan continued to build and use triodes because they liked the sound. They are more expensive to run, but they look and sound great. Thankfully I acquired a lifetime supply of 6C33C tubes before Russia closed.
@@piercehawke8021 It's a waste to make new 6L6's since there are are still hundreds of thousands of them out there, not as many as 6V6's, but still a lot.
My last two amps have been hybrid i.e. tubes on the input stage and solid state on the output stage! Would never buy anything else they sound sooooo good. Plus you can swap the tubes and create a different soundstage, add warmth, add detail etc etc
What many ppl don't understand is that the type of distortion matters more than the amount of distortion. A tube can have about 10x the distortion of a transistor and still sound more natural and organic because of the type of distortion. There are some solid-state amp designers who spend most of their time getting the distortion right but not low in example Jean Hiraga with his LeMonstre and PrePre. It get's even worse when you hit op-amp territory, they sound even worse and they have about 1/10 of distortion of a "normal" transistor or 1/100 of a tube, but once you introduce them into your system you always notice a sound like a dentist drill. The type of distortion is what matters most.
Even it one amplifier has 0,2% distortions and other 2% 100% sure it is the same for listening. Considering that we use only no more than 50% of max power distortions fall below 10% declaired counetd s repectively it means 0,02% and 0,2% So such low level nonlinear distortions are not real reason of bad impression but the reason is in not spoken faults .
My system is hybrid. Because of it, I have finally reached a point in my quest for audio nirvana where I am so pleased with my setup that I have neither the need or the desire to change anything. That's not something that I ever thought would happen in my audiophile life. That's the "magic" that Paul mentioned.
What kind of system are you running. I’be a badass Mesa Boogie guitar amp and wanna get a nice record player setup to push some SERIOUS volume. Like dangerous to your ears I mean. I like headroom. I can always turn it down.
@@MrMann-gt1eh From all the haters trolling RU-vid videos, I learned very quickly not to mention the equipment brands that work for me. I run a class A/B tube amplifier with KT120 finals and 75 WPC output, and a pure class A hybrid preamplifier. Because I run very high efficiency speakers, I can easily play at volumes that become uncomfortable long before top end or distortion is ever reached. Tubes in the output stage need to breathe, so they don't play well with hard to drive speakers. I set my system up from the start to get the sound I prefer using modern tube equipment and non-demanding speakers that feature large woofers and horns, something that tubes seem to really like. The only real world advice I can give you is to first, analyze what sound you prefer. Tubes tend to add some coloration, which is where the "warmth" comes from. Solid state has a much better chance of obtaining a neutral, non-colored sound that many younger audiophiles seem to prefer. Hybrid systems like mine, when properly paired, can walk that fine line between warmth and neutrality, giving you the best of both worlds. As you build your system, pay less attention to tech specs, and more to actual user reviews, looking for the ones that deliver the type of sound that appeals to you.
That validates an idea I had in 2000 to build hybrid amps with tubes and MOSFETS, exactly as described here. But, alas, modeling the circuits with software back then was not as robust as I needed, so, I abandoned the project. Being a software engineer with no electronics background, I required software that made up for my lack of experience. Just modeling a simple power transformer (accurately) was insane.
It's a bit like this to me. If you are just sitting in a listening room focused on the music experience, your other senses easily get starved if your system lacks visual attributes. You want something physical to please more than your ears, and glowing vacuum tubes and a vinyl disc rotating visibly while you listen to music make you feel more involved and attached to the experience. I love the view of glowing vacuum tubes even I don't really appreciate their audio signal impact and poor stability over time. Give me some beautiful vacuum tubes and a bypass switch.
You can't beat having a CD or a vinyl. The physical copy is always superior. Not the most convenient but the sound is all there. People forget when Apple made mp3s the quality is 7x lower. Listening to a vinyl vs an mp3 on some earbuds is like a holy experience vs having your parents drop a 5 at church on Sunday for your ass.
I would love to see tubes getting further developed in a way that manufacturer can control the outcome of what they're tubes will sound like. Holographic, Warmth... And maybe improve the properties even more. I mean we all know differnt tubes sound different but it all seems to random.
When I wanted to upgrade my amp I was going between the PS Audio M700 and the M1200 monoblocks. Although I didn’t need 1200 watts I ended up going with the M1200’s because of the vacuum tubes on the front end.
@@catsbyondrepair While I agree and suspect it's made in China and they do basic assembly like plugging boards in at their "factory" in Colorado, it's built pretty well. At least the one I owned. And they can get things done well in China. They should just own it.
There will always be a market for music afficionados who prefer the sound of a tubed preamp or amplifier. Then there are those audiophiles who CAN have multiple listening rooms, and thus have great solid state systems AND great tubed systems! Just like you can appreciate and love both dogs and cats, one can appreciate both tubed and solid state, and even own both.
Would be really interesting if Paul could give us an idea of the new products they are working on, and possibly some outline timeline? Currently thinking about purchasing BHK pre and power amps but would be very unhappy if new versions are on the horizon and come out just after I make my purchases.
[quote:] "Whenever I buy something new and shiny, something even newer and shinier always seems to immediately come out." Okay, I get it. But the alternative is to die with the brochure in your hands.
This was interesting video because I presumed Paul was always a tube guy. Lends credibility when someone challenges and tests their views- and then pivots based on findings. Makes me more open to tube concept
Yeah good luck with those toobz right about now. At least until production ramps up in a friendly country. I expect prices to track a little steeper than gas over the next year.
i have my first single-ended tube amp on 25L6 GT and it sounds great with Dali Ikon 2 mk2 loudspeakers. Of course with a good helpers in bottom as pair of Dali SWA 12" subwoofers (closed box)
Thank God they will be there for decades more. And now with modern high output power tubes coming out every 5 years or so (see KT-90/KT-120/KT-150/KT-170), you can have high output amps with fewer and more reliable tubes.
Hi, I am an audiophile and want the best quality concerning amps, speakers, music files etc. I was thinking when most people can afford high end equipment they are in their later stages of life. This fact makes it almost ironic that one would need to be much younger to truly enjoy the frequency response these systems have to offer because as one gets older your hearing deteriorates making all the fantastic quality go to waste a little. What are your thoughts? Life is short so enjoy the best quality of things while you can? or do I have a small point?
I am 68 and you have a valid point. I have a hard time hearing anything over 10 Khz or so. OTOH, my son is 42 and he does appreciate the differences, but probably because I made him aware of them 20 years ago.
I think frequency response is only one thing in listening. Most sounds are below 10KHz, you really don't miss a whole lot. It's the sound stage, separation, 3D effect that are more important to me. To get that, not only you have to have good amp, speaker cable and speakers, the room acoustics is just as important. Speaker placement is so critical, takes a lot of playing around to get it right. I personally mainly use my system to watch tv, not even surround sound, just 2.1. I had 5.1 before, did not like it, it's too artificial. I like a good system that make you feel like you are in the middle. You can hear sound surrounding you. The effect is so much more natural than 5.1. This take a very good system to do that. To me, the most critical sound is human voice. Anything imperfect will show up. I can even use a news channel to test. No high frequency involve at all. I am 69, I test the frequency response of my ears, I can still hear up to 12KHz(barely). I don't think it's too bad.
Got mine on New Year's Eve ! Still in the burn-in stage as I could afford only half an hour a day listening pleasure, but already sounds out of this world !
Linearity is a question of slew rate, open loop gain and negative feedback. You can use an op amp like the AD797. It has nearly perfect linearity with +5V / -5V rails. There is no need to got to larger voltages. If you use tubes, you NEED to operate them at very high voltages because they have a highly nonlinear characteristic very little voltage gain. So you NEED higher voltages in order to find a little piece within the shitty characteristic to work with. And you need, of course, higher voltages to make them operate at all.
I test different audio opamps, they are all very low THD, they sound different. Sound cannot just be analyzed by THD alone. I designed power amps with different input stages, they all sound a little different. The lowest THD is the Complementary LTP used in Krell and some others. But it doesn't necessary sound best in all music. It is strange that they do sound a little different. One is good for one style of music and the other for another style. Strange. Linearity is NOT related to slew rate as long as it's fast enough which is not hard to get for audio frequency.
What could spell the demise of tube amps. could more be related to either, hard to get materials, or suppliers getting out of the business of making them as there isn't enough profit.
It makes sense too as power scales exponentially. Every 3db increase doubles the power and a 10db increase in sound is perceived as twice as loud to our ears so tubes give plenty of power for most efficient speakers and the smaller transformers are lower on noise so it all makes perfect sense.
My recommendation: a high quality tube PREAMP….and you won’t have any hassle with replacing tubes every year or two…and get the VERY best combination with a high quality SS power amp!
I'm not sure where you get that from. Though it varies by manufacturer, ARC recommends you replace the tubes in their Ref 6 line stage every 2000 hours for the 6550WE and every 4000 hours for the seven 6H30s. That's every 83 days for the 6550WE and every 167 days for the 6H30s for people who leave their gear on 24/7 like I do - or four 6550 WEs and 14 6H30s each and every year.
@@VideoArchiveGuy sure it depends on how often and how long you listen to your tube gear …but it’s commonly known that tube’s are more prone to wear when used in POWER amplifiers… not that much by far when used in PREamps…didn’t you know that?!
@@bikemike1118 Yes, ARC recommends replacing all tubes in their power amps every 2000 hours. You said you won't have any hassle with replacing tubes "every year or two," but the hour limits I reported are why I can't have a tubed preamp no matter how good they might sound.
@@VideoArchiveGuy …so you’re listening six hours to music EVERY single day ?? Respect…you seem to have plenty of spare time! Apart from that: one doesn’t leave tube gear on 24/7 ( makes no sense at all anyway with tubes). One does that … or can do that with SS gear! Tube gear is switched off when the listening session is finished! In preamps tubes last VERY long …a decade is nothing out of the ordinary!
@@bikemike1118 Same is my opinion. Got used vintage amp where seller "retubed" all input stages made with ECC83 buI do not know if they were realy new. It was some 4 years ago I use it moderate but periodically check voltages which reflect the anode current They do not change visibly and they are still in line with producer data (1963) up to +/-1% which is perfect. I think in some constructions due to overheating of tube sockets contacts may be mess with measured voltages or even overheating of greds which damages tube which has no much in common to time .
I have a sort of random question not about vacuum tubes, sorry to get off topic. I was thinking about the the fact that the IRSV have been great speakers for over 30 years now... do you expect the FR30's to retain their value for that long? Will there be people in 2052 talking about their FR30's they've had for 30 years that "can stand toe to toe with most of the new stuff"?
Absolutely not. To be in that class, you need to make many models, and then maybe one of them can achieve collectible status. Most Infinity models don't have that collectible "thing". There are few brands where MANY old models are sought-after years later. Altec, Westeren Electric, Tannoy, and maybe JBL. There's other.
@@bills8770 ... part of that is brand loyalty. If you loved it when you were 20 (and couldn't afford it) you may be seeking that stuff when you are in your 60s. (and CAN afford it) The flip side is SOME of that will fade with time. I am also a car nut and I see there are no longer piles of pre WWII vehicles at car shows. Brass era is non-existent. The people who loved them are dropping like flies (old age) and the cars are either going to scrap or museums. I presume the same thing will happen with vintage audio, and the new favorite for the next generation will be high end 80s / 90s gear.
Spot on: Glowing power tubes and their noisy transformers will indeed one day be no more. But the 12AX7 will still roam the earth, along with the cockroach, until the end of time... 💪
Yeah I agree vacuum tube inputs are superb ... it's the high voltage and the trans conductance that create the sonics at this stage .... I wish I knew how the twin triodes are used ... are they a differential stage as used in many audio amps ?
@1:47 "...because there's less and less interest in it" -- referring to pure vacuum tube based amps, and that they will be fazed out. Those amps will be with us for a long, long time. Why? Some of the best sounding amps on the planet are 100% vacuum tube based. Granted, they cannot give you the slam of a high powered hybrid set of amps. But for non-demanding music, they are about as good as it gets. So if 30 watts per channel is enough (and for some people, along with the right music, it is enough), then that pair of 30 watts per channel tube amps will blow your mind. There are enough affluent people that will own such amps for one type of music, while using hybrid amps for more demanding music, or for making your paintings fall off the wall (so to speak). There are also people that are not all that interested in being able to party down the town, where 100% tube amps will give them glorious sound for their taste in music. And some tube amps will deliver a fair amount of power. I have heard Quick Silver V4 amps powering Vandersteen Quatro speakers. Those speakers have a built-in, powered sub-woofer, which took a significant load off of those tube amps, and they played plenty loud, with no sign of fatigue. When it comes to high-end audio (and mid-fidelity audio, but to a lesser degree), people put together stereos, component by component. They choose everything, down to the power cords, room treatments, and vinyl stamper codes. The demand for 100% tube amps will never cease, unless some design comes along that can do that job at the same or lower cost.
I definitely do not agree with Paul on that one as well. I can respect the fact that PS audio has a different design philosophy but there are more ways to skin a cat.
Maybe what Ben wanted to ask is, these days tubes are made to sound more like solid states, and solid states can be made to sound like tubes, so why not a reliable, zero maintenance, tube-sounding solid state?
They absolute will not disappear. Agreed..... Also you are starving the plates @ 150 volts DC. I just suggest trying a higher plate voltage. Your beautiful even harmonics will start to shine above 150 volt plate.
Well! I hope they never disappear. Not that they are either the most powerful or the best. But they do have their place in the audiophiles spectrum. Let me digress. If I wanted to build a 200 watt RMS all-tube amplification system. I could do it. But for what purpose? There are adequate systems available to that task.
Can the output transformer (tube power amp) offer a better transfer of power to the speaker (as the speakers impedance varies)?? I swear I owned a Sunn Sonic 1 (rated at 40 watts RMS)- bass guitar amp )) and that amp was the most power full 40 watt amp I ever experienced!!!! Yes this amp cabinet used a JBL D-140 speaker.
Some people like the added musical distortion of vacuum tubes. It's all great, but it's not OK if you call that a purist approach to audio. When your music has gone through tons of transistors including op-amps, of course adding one vacuum tube is not going to make the signal any more pure. A vacuum tube adding even harmonic distortion is sort of making the music more live sounding especially at the peaks. I would prefer a bypass switch to allow my music to be purest possible similar to some bypass switches with tone controls if you want purest audio.
You are soo full of it. There is no purist clean audio approach. I swear you're delusional. Look it's simple. Solid state amps also distort in even order harmonics but they hard clip and when they run out of juice they have more odd order harmonics. Tube amps mainly distort in even order harmonics and soft clip. They are both not adding anything until they are pushed too far. I've heard tube gear that sounded clean like solid states typically do and I've heard solid state gear that had rich engaging sound like an el34 but less midrange emphasis. The fact is every amp has a sound signature and no setup will ever compare to the real musicians playing in your room. Just enjoy the sound and stop labeling it pure or not because clinical cleanliness is not pure either. It's just over filtered. Class a tube or solid state has no crossover distortion and is perfectly linear. Class d however sounds different but the purifi class d amps are superb and match perfectly with tube preamps. Is it a crime to enjoy this? NO SO STOP SHAMING DIFFERENT SOUND SIGNATURES DAMMIT
@@gavinbarr3441 Thank you. Why is it soo hard to just listen to something and be like that sounds great I want that or be like that sounds different but it's not wrong I like it too. With all the money hi end gear cost you could buy 30 concert tickets in a year instead of getting some $10k+ amp thingy wtf is wrong with people.
@@gavinbarr3441 Of course whatever sound that makes you happy is what you should choose. I often use EQ (carefully tuned) if I have tonal balance issues with my systems or headphones. My favorite thing is to add about +6 dB around 16kHz as it makes my hearing rejuvenated like when I was in my early 20s. Tube sound is not my thing.
@@V1ralB1ack what if you listen to music to relax at home? everyone that loves music does not nessecery like to go to concerts. Like my self, i have been to a lot of concerts but it's just not the same relaxation that I get at home and the sound is often very bad at concerts.
Tubes, in Hifi it is a way to create a sound with a worse damping faktor, a bit blurring effekt. I dont need it. But musicians needs it to create a special guitarsound.
Love the channel, but I notice whenever Paul responds to this kind of question it's a vague, gentle knock at all-tube designs. Like when Paul says "I would change my tubes every six months" is a gentle way to sway less educated audiophiles away from all-tube power amps. I had a BHK250 (and have owned a ton of other gear) and it was fine, but even though it was described as being comparable to a tube amplifier it was not. And for those that know, it's never gonna happen. If given a choice of a very good but cheap tube amp over this expensive solid-state or even hybrid, and I knew I would have to live with it forever, I would take the cheaper tube amp.
Not so sure about tube outputs being a must. Listen to "What I Know About Love" by King's X. I have never heard anyone come up with a tone as nasty and as tasty as to what guitarist Ty Tabor achieved on this album. Yep, it's solid state. For most bands, adoring fans would jump on stage to meet their heroes. Would you believe that at least once that I know of, (heard it has happened several times), someone rushed on stage to try to get a look at his guitar rig!
And another 'twist' in the tube vs SS; apparently with Russia now in a war with Ukraine, the manufacturing of new vacuum tubes is now sketchy. It's to the point that Western Electric, since they already know to make 300B output tubes, are planning to start making about a dozen more like the KT88, 6L6, 6V6, 12AX7, and a few others, to help keep Fender, Hammond/Leslie, etc in production.
A/B tests are better than nothing, but what about measurements? Are they were better for tubes version? Or tubes were better just because people like their distortions of the signal?
When solid state Amps start sounding more like the real thing and better than tubes not artificial Hifi audiophile sound.that even the best such as Gryphon exhibits.
Who don't want good sound? I am totally fine with tubes in the amp if you can make BHK amp 1/3 of its current size. This is one of the reason people find alternative.
I grew up with tubes, still have some tube equipment hanging around. I remember when local drug stores had tube testers in them! A while after solid state came out I switched over and never looked back.
. If shop provided such tester it was for purpose to make people to change tubes frequeantly Why ? because only mass selling of tubes could compete with cheaper solid technology making gains due to low production costs of whole sets in compare to tube sets. . . It is my supposition.
@@leancove9662 I'veI got my Bell tube amplifier produced in 1963. It was already refurbished by someone to make it work for sell but was something abnormal in condition. It was hard to diagnoze what's wrong with good tubes. . It took me about 1 year to find and rectify all in amplifier which was sold as "good". After I modified it to my needs (replaced volume pot with double value and redesigned tape head input to make flat sensitive input) I tried in past tube and solid too.and it is best phono input and amp I ever had.
Odd request considering the topic. But I play guitar and use tube amps. Due to recent conflicts in Ukraine has made it impossible for me to get correct replacement tubes. I have always considered using solid state replacements, but have been unable to find a supplier or schematic. Please can you help me find a supplier of solid state valve replacements, that can deliver to United Kingdom
Classic timing as Russia say they will no longer supply the UK or EU... The Chinese factory burnt down in 2019 and they have switched to semi-conductor production instead, JJ have cncelled all back orders and supplys run out across the Globe.... Fact is it's highly toxic production process with Mercury and other toxic metals involved so health and safety regs mean only the likes of Russia and China will allow production... Slovakia is the only manufacturing country right now with any supply... There will probably be small supplies for a good while yet in the US, and even smaller in the EU but don't hold on the hope you can pick up a replacement anytime soon...
The Russian factory is exporting again. It's American-owned, and no matter what, it's building tubes. And there is another Chinese plant PSvane building and expanding, just like JJ is expanding.
@@bills8770 The Russian plant is only shipping to the US not the EU or UK and due to the war the sanctions will last years so that isn’t going to change, the other Chinese factory is small and doesn’t produce much at all and is likely to also swap to semi conductors JJ have back orders dating 18 months and have cancelled all of them until further notice …
@@bills8770 We already had a very short supply , Fender reduced its amp production by half because for two years they couldn’t get enough tubes so this ain’t going away anytime soon
I have always believed that demand will drive supply. But the whole process of manufacturing valves is pretty non-green. Lines have little changed from vintage processes and materials. So forget logic. It will take an illogical exuberant personality to stand up and maintain modern tube manufacturing in North America to service the audio industry.
I wonder what effect these shenanigans in Russia now will have on new tube supplies? Only Russia and China still make tubes. And the Russian tubes are generally considered the best of the two. Now there is still NOS and used tubes, which is great for DIY, but you can't produce a product like PS Audio does without a reliable supply of new parts, tubes in this case. And my advice on tube amps is that they sound different than solid state. If you like the sound of tubes, then for you, tubes are the best choice. And likewise for solid state. There is no "best" amplifier and never will be. I use both. Solid state for HT and multichannel and an all tube 2 channel system for music.
Tubes make my PSAudio BHK 250 amp sound very good. If Russia is not a player anymore, is only China, Czech and Slovakia left? Will PSAudio pull out of and stop selling products in the Russian market?
People in last decades shifted their life to cars with which they work and go for meeteings Tubes are not applicable there but last two years made them go back home I think with price over 100USD for one small power double triode we will see more producers
Paul, I am now ancient enough that I remember the days when our radio would stop working periodically and we'd pull its tubes and go to the electronics store of the day and test them to see which one was caput. Question is, is tube life any better now?
It has the same sense of purpose as to bringing the solid MP3 player back to shop to make tech measurements if it is as good as in manual It can always proof you need to replace with new model due to ugly operation of button or top frequency is 17 kHz not 20 kHz
If one would ask m,e my answer is - at the start of a day listen to solid "sounding like tube" and it obvioulsly sounds like all diamonds And after 2 hours (if time allows) repalce amp with tube amp - it makes me to change mind and fall in love with hot glass . Untill the next day comes...
When audiophyles lost the hability to listen properly - they disappear. Still today, well made tube amps (there aren't so many) are the proper way to achieve the best sound posible, but they aren't cheap...
