differences between tube and solid state designs

Shadrone,

1st I want to make it perfectly clear that I take NO position on what others like or use for their entertainment. I'm just having some fun, and in that vein....

Perhaps us tubophiles find SS stuff boring if for no other reason that we can't tinker with it much. With tubes we get to tinker with everything! Getting bored with the sound buy some new drivers, exhaust that possibility - get some new power tubes, exhaust that possibility vary the bias on the power tubes, exhaust that possibilty change out caps, exhaust that possibility - oh well you get the idea! Now add to that the mid-range liquidity and upper frequency air, 3 dimensionality if you please, that I can't seem to find in SS, how can you go wrong. Hell I've even got some amps with a two ohm tap just in case I get some speakers that are hard to drive, bass and impedence wise. All I give up is a bit of slam in the bass, just a bit mind you.

All that said, on balance, I tend to agree with you.

One of the wonderful things about SS, assuming you have reached your sonic goals, is you don't have much angst about tube wear, finding suitble replacements for failures, tube amp damage caused by major shorts in power tubes, ad infinitum! Worryworts need not apply! Just those exact concerns kept me away from tubes for a long time!

In fact there are some occasions when I wish there weren't so many varibles with tubes, especially amps, which also require special attention to proper speaker matching in the first place, as mentioned above by Jayarr. Very important issue!

This is a fun hobby...........:-)

Jayarr, well said & how true in regards to tubes offering a 3 dimensional soundstage. Average solid state can be 2D and some of the better at best can offer 2.5D. Although I prefer solid state amplification coupled with a tube preamp, I have settled on a ss preamp. Just recently purchased a tube preamp that has no less than seven tubes and will be used as an alternative to my ss preamp. No law that I know says you can't own both.

I didn't mean that tubers were trying to fix or flatten tube sounds by changing cables etc... all I meant was that tubes tend to accentuate these changes whilst SS gear often makes these kind of changes almost inaudible.

Therefore people with tubes tend to have a different view of cables and interconnects than people who use SS amps.

>>>>

I spent a lot more time and money changing out ics and speaker cables with SS equipment. Never satisfied with the sound I was hearing. Since I moved to tubes, preamp and power amp, I don't even think about changing cables. As for rolling tubes to change the sound, yes, I have in the preamp, (Sonic Frontiers Line One). Not because I did not like what I was hearing, but more of what I might hear from my system with other tubes.

Jea48,

Agreed, many love that tube sound....and changing ics and speaker cables on SS gear is not very likely to achieve teh same.

Part of My System....Plinius SA102s in xlr mono with Mirage OM6s,Plinius M-8 preamplifier w/ ht bypass, a P8 driving an MC2 full range center channel, Plinius SA100mk3 on Mirage OM10 surrounds, 2- [ stereo ]- 18 inch Bag End Infrasubs for added depth, Mullard NOS Tubes in my Kora Hermes DAC and Magnum Dynalab 102 triode tuner.

And Yes, I agree tubes need be somewhere in the chain so for me I prefer them at the beginning of the signal, in my source to be exact.

A see through quality or ability to peer into the performance?

I dont want to sound like a writer, but my impressions are as follows:

Yeah , Big time guys, with 2 15 amp 220 volt dedicated outlets for deeper saturation of my Plinius SA102s primary transformers, a line conditioner for front end components along with high quality cabling from transparent, your pretty much they're! This topic is open to subjective biased opinions based on every ones own experiences but for me there's really no need to explore any further as the dimensional sound stage with performers and instruments in they're own space giving me a very realistic recreation of the recorded event. Image blooming to scale with excellent instrumental harmonic tones and dynamic shading with my speakers, both small [micro] and large [macro] dependent on the recording and associated quality of mastering in the studio and a direct relation to the volume at playback. Different recordings revealing unique spatial qualities individual to they're own optimised playback level.

Tubes have excellent musical qualities to be sure, but lets not forget that there are exceptional lines of solid state equipment that, when matched well in ones system, offer up they're own magical recipe for sonic delight.

ENJOY... REGARDS /// TIM W...