Quote:
Originally posted by Ross
And who are these recording engineers, exactly? Names, please.
I don't believe you are likely to find any consensus on this issue amongst recording engineers.
In any case, recording engineers are probably the last group whose opinion I would consult on this or any other issue.
Ross |
But Ross, why do you ask for names, then indicate you don't care what they think anyway? Tubes are for music lovers. Measurments are for people in white lab coats. It's what goes into your ear, and how pleasurable that is, that counts.
I'm most certain that SS measures better, just as I'm certain digital measures better than analog. Who cares? It's what sounds better that counts. It's being able to listen for hours and hours without developing listening fatigue or wanting to turn the system off because it is annoying or irritating.
Point of interest: To be fair, I put back the stock tubes in the X-Cans, gave it a warmup and did some listening. I had the following "observations"...
Overall sound was colored and slightly foggy, bass was rolled off and wooly. It was still smooth but lacked openness and clarity. It also pooped out at high volume. OK, now I was getting somewhere. I realized what Ross was referring to.
I went back to my Grado RA-1 and listened to the same source and same pieces of music. The sound opened up, it was much, much less blurry and foggy, and much more transparent and nimble, fast and light on it's feet. The bass was clean, articulate and more extended. The background was much more "black" and silent. A-HA!!
Everything I liked about tubes and the X-Cans seemed to be eradicated. What to do?
I decided, possibly in a panic, that the X-Cans needed some upgrading, so headed to Radio Shack and I bought a volume pot, a headphone jack, some silver wire and solder and also went to an electronics store and asked for their best risistors and transistors.
I know virually nothing about electronics, but I opened the unit up and replaced all the resistors ( I think) with the ones from Radio Shack. I also replaced the transistors (I think, the ones with two pins?), anyway, they looked about the same so I replaced them with the new ones. I then replaced the volume pot and the headphone jack. The volume pot looks weird and sticks out from the edge, but it was sound I was after, not cosmetics.
While I had the unit open, I rolled the tubes, back to the JJ's. I closed 'er up, plugged it in, and heard a small "pop". I plugged the headphones in and hit play. There was just a buzzing noise. I opened it back up and after scouring the board, I found one of the transistors had blown. I replaced that one with a red one and went back to listen.
Very disappointing. No bass, the volume crackled, and the treble was all distorted. The unit also began to smoke and smell funny. I unplugged the X-Cans but it continued to smoke. The odd thing was it smelled like cigarette smoke.
I opened the unit up yet again and there was a tiny tiny lepracaun, sitting atop one of the tubes, smoking a fag. He looks up at me and quips "Aye, ya see what happens when ya post bullshet about tuubes? Bad karma laddie"
