[herbie12389]

  I would have to agree that tubes typically sounds smooth, and sounds more musical or natural to my ears.  I keep hearing the SS amps specs a better, low distortion, and therefore it should sound better.  
 
It just confuses me.  I probably prefer tube sound as long as the all the details are there, which I don't doubt as long as I have the right headphones.
 
It's always distortion, coloring, tube warmth, and etc.. People pick up tube amps because they like the sound, and lots of people do hear a difference in tube and SS.  

The best way to find out if its for you is to use your ears. The shop that I work for pretty much only sells tube equipment. I chose this store due to how I responded to the sound. Every time I make it to audio shows I find myself always eager to see the next great whatever... but tubes just keep chugging along providing the listener with a much more enjoyable listening experience. Do not mistake detail for over accented higher frequencies, that only fatigues the ear over time. Most solid state has that effect. 

 

[bigshot]

Well I don't have the money or the resurrection powers to bring my favorite artists to my living room for a live concert in a quiet setting, unfortunately.

I think it would be interesting to get you into a DBT of solid state vs tube amps just to see which you would pick as "better" and more "natural"... We'd be in for a few surprises I think

Recordings are a time machine to bring the dead back to life.

I've heard tube amps that sounded as good as solid state. No audible distortion, flat response. I'm sure there would be some out there that would be transparent to me. But why bother when a solid state amp can be transparent cheaper and easier. I'm sure there would also be tube amps that are blatantly obvious... rolled off, rounded off. Those wouldn't be what I'm looking for.

There is a huge advantage to having complete neutrality throughout the chain. You can certainly add corrections and modifications to the sound, but you do it in the form of a DSP or EQ at the very last stage before the speakers. That way, the corrections are available to all sources and you can fine tune the degree of correction to the needs of the speciific recording. You don't have a CD player that sounds different than your DAP, requiring different settings. And you don''t have the coloration hardwired into the system with no ability to adjust it or bypass it.

 

[herbie12389]

Recordings are a time machine to bring the dead back to life.

I've heard tube amps that sounded as good as solid state. No audible distortion, flat response. I'm sure there would be some out there that would be transparent to me. But why bother when a solid state amp can be transparent cheaper and easier. I'm sure there would also be tube amps that are blatantly obvious... rolled off, rounded off. Those wouldn't be what I'm looking for.

There is a huge advantage to having complete neutrality throughout the chain. You can certainly add corrections and modifications to the sound, but you do it in the form of a DSP or EQ at the very last stage before the speakers. That way, the corrections are available to all sources and you can fine tune the degree of correction to the needs of the speciific recording. You don't have a CD player that sounds different than your DAP, requiring different settings. And you don''t have the coloration hardwired into the system with no ability to adjust it or bypass it.

TUBESSSSS

 

[bigshot]

Do not mistake detail for over accented higher frequencies, that only fatigues the ear over time. Most solid state has that effect. 

You're misattributing that. Most solid state amps have a stone flat frequency response. The speakers or headphones are the place where the boost in higher frequencies exists causing fatigue. You can balance that out with an equalizer, or you can roll the high end off entirely using a tube amp with a drastic low pass filter designed into it. But carefully adjusting EQ is going to give you a MUCH better result than a ham handed hard wired approach.

 

[herbie12389]

You're misattributing that. Most solid state amps have a stone flat frequency response. The speakers or headphones are the place where the boost in higher frequencies exists causing fatigue. You can balance that out with an equalizer, or you can roll the high end off entirely using a tube amp with a drastic low pass filter designed into it. But carefully adjusting EQ is going to give you a MUCH better result than a ham handed hard wired approach.

WOW add an EQ sureeeeee.... You just proved how much you know. Why would you want to take away from what the recording artist did. 
 
You are right. Flat like a stone. Cold and hard... FAIL 

 

[herbie12389]

  WOW add an EQ sureeeeee.... You just proved how much you know. Why would you want to take away from what the recording artist did. 
 
You are right. Flat like a stone. Cold and hard... FAIL 

Especially to make up for poor attributes that your gear is causing. 

 

[bigshot]

WOW add an EQ sureeeeee.... You just proved how much you know. Why would you want to take away from what the recording artist did. 

You are right. Flat like a stone. Cold and hard... FAIL 

Your fail just failed... HARD!

Flat EQ = calibration = accurate = what the recording artist did

I'm curious... what made you want to participate in the sound science forum? You seem to have little interest in the topic.

 

[herbie12389]

Your fail just failed... HARD!

Flat EQ = calibration = accurate = what the recording artist did

I'm curious... what made you want to participate in the sound science forum? You seem to have little interest in the topic.

Sir. The recording artist already mixed things up the way he wanted you to hear it. Whenever you add an EQ to the sound chain. It degrades and takes away all the work that artist and recording studio did. So who are you to start changing their work?
 
Most of my interest has fallen in you now... 

 

[bigshot]

I've supervised sound mixes.

Mixes are created using calibrated studio monitors. The head engineer uses an equalizer to balance the frequency response, correcting for imbalances in the room acoustics and the speakers themselves. The goal is a flat / neutral / balanced frequency response.

Every set of speakers, and every room sounds different; therefore, if you want to hear exactly what the original engineers heard, you have to calibrate your own speakers to a flat / neutral / balanced frequency response. When you use a relatively decent equalizer, there is no degradation to the sound... only correction.

Equalization isn't changing the sound from what was intended, it's putting it back to the way it was supposed to sound.... Calibrating to a baseline response.

You learn something new every day. Thanks for listening!

 

[herbie12389]

I've supervised sound mixes.

Mixes are created using calibrated studio monitors. The head engineer uses an equalizer to balance the frequency response, correcting for imbalances in the room acoustics and the speakers themselves. The goal is a flat / neutral / balanced frequency response.

Every set of speakers, and every room sounds different; therefore, if you want to hear exactly what the original engineers heard, you have to calibrate your own speakers to a flat / neutral / balanced frequency response. When you use a relatively decent equalizer, there is no degradation to the sound... only correction.

Equalization isn't changing the sound from what was intended, it's putting it back to the way it was supposed to sound.... Calibrating to a baseline response.

You learn something new every day. Thanks for listening!

I did learn something new... You are not to be trusted. 

 

[bigshot]

HAVE A VERY NICE DAY!

 

[herbie12389]

  I did learn something new... You are not to be trusted. 

But I do love this site and listening to other peoples opinion of what high end audio is about. So many different flavors. 

 

[herbie12389]

YALL COME BACK MEOW

 

[nigeljames]

   
And that's where our opinions differ. Live music is far from great (strictly in terms of sound quality), most of the time studio albums are much better, and this is valid for a vast majority of music (especially non-acoustic).
 
As for accurate sound I'm still waiting for your EQ thread. So far, all you've said on the subject only tells me that you're a purist, and I like music. To each their own.

 
Again +1

 

[nigeljames]

  Tell that to most guitar players who use tubes in their amps... I now wonder what they are hearing after all this time?

 
That's simply because tube distortion sounds better than SS distortion and that is an important part of the guitar sound if it is being over driven, as is often the case.