Hi
@PaganDL ...
Appreciate the insight here - you succinctly explained the foundational concepts that has taken me a better part of the past week to wrap my head around - so a big big thank you for that! Agreed - balanced 2.5mm to RCA not really worth it especially in light of the fact that my amp will not be providing a balanced output - I guess I was just trying to identify possible benefits of feeding a stronger signal to the amp. I've gone ahead and bought myself a good 3.5mm to RCA chord. Just completed the setup last night and thus far am quite impressed with the output.
My living / listening room is at about 20x10 (so not very big by any stretch), and haven't been able to dial the amp beyond 12 o'clock (half way through) ... it's got a beautiful quality especially for organic instruments (cellos, acoustic guitars, pianos) as well as vocals. To be honest - I think something in my setup is struggling with metal music (not popping - guitars are shining through though), but live performances and good quality recordings are absolutely shining through.
Any good resources you recommend me to study regarding tube amps/ tubes and their characteristic in general?
Hi
@zambie,
No problem, happy to help, I will leave you with one general tip, think of electricity as similar to how water flows & water pressure then a lot of electrical concepts & theory will make more sense as electricity always seek to find balance with itself & its surroudings.
Hope this makes sense.
If you provide more info on your audio setup, I should be able to help you troubleshoot, so let me know though explain what you mean by 'not popping'.
Regarding tubes, basically it comes down to experience, researching how tubes interact with electricity, each other & amp circuits in general & lots of demos...
Can't stress the last part enough.
The best way to think of tubes are much like old school incandescent light bulbs but with dimmable switches & in some cases more fragile & sensitive, depending on type, circuit, etc...
Good books exist on tubes though more often than not, they are hard to find & pricey & in some cases, incomplete as they do not always list the tube variants &/or equivalents.
The best way to understand tube characteristics is knowing what kind of sound you like & finding tubes which suit your tastes.
Many charts & descriptions exist on tube characteristics, just search the net, more than happy to help verify any you come across.
These are usually numbered on a 1 to 10 Scale for easy reference where characteristics are concerned.
Positives to look for in tube characteristics as a start, are warmth (the sound tone & feeling you may experience when listening to tubes) & low noise &/or microphonics (ringing noise)
For warmth, you want an average of 6 by most chart standards though this is average personal preference, subjectively & personally, I myself prefer average 8.
If noise &/or microphonics are higher than a 6, it can potentially be annoying & in general, detract from the listening experience especially at low volume &/or quiet sounds.
There are some who like high gain which is both a good & bad thing as some tubes pick up noise really easily & if a tube has high gain & high noise, it can be almost unlistenable unless someone is after that characteristic (these people exist) or the amp has well designed circuits which can compansate for this.
There are many good tube amps out there which are inexpensive & able to be tube rolled (changed) much like one would change a headphone/IEM cable, ear pads or ear tips though unlike the other things, is not usually necessary, just a matter of taste.
The most common misconception are tube amps or at least tube rolling on its own are expensive & a waste of time, this is largely untrue, as there are good tubes which cost any where from a few dollars to $ 50 +
The tubes most who usually have no idea about & say tubes are expensive are the 300 variants in particular, the 300 B series.
Like all audio gear, there are tube amps for every level & you will find something which will suit your needs.
Most good, affordable tubes used in decent tube amps, use some 6N variant, eg 6NP, 6AK (Chinese origin loosely based on old Soviet & Eastern European) or any 8 Series, eg EC 8822, EL 83 or 84, etc
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on point of view, I have not tried many 'popular' (eg, usually the super cheap ones on Amazon) tube amps so I am no judge of many of those.
When I first started learning about tube amps & tubes in general, a lot of it was quite expensive for no reason & not easy to get where I was.
That was many years ago & things have changed significantly & there are now so many options.
I have a few I use (refer to my profile) & many others I have tried so it won't be hard to recommend some if you tell me your budget.
Hope you have a great day !
