"But don't know how a 70 year old Fee Waybill is going to pull off "White Punks on Dope".
Maybe an update is in order? - Angry seniors on Medicare!
Maybe an update is in order? - Angry seniors on Medicare!
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@tomic601 - You may be disappointed in the new Ludlow Garage. It is now in the basement of the building that previously housed the Ludlow Garage. It's not the same room where The Allman Bros. recorded "Live at Ludlow Garage". But hey, it's still the same building in Clifton, so I guess that counts for something. They're trying. They do have a lot of shows for acts that play smallish room. I've seen a few good ones there, including a real cracker of a show by The Alarm. Currently holding tickets for Son Volt and Shovels and Rope. Will probably go to The Tubes show. I've seen them a few times over the years and always enjoyed it. But don't know how a 70 year old Fee Waybill is going to pull off "White Punks on Dope". |
Way off topic but I have a promo LP pressing of the Tubes What Do you Want From Live that sounds fantastic. - I think its a white label radio station copy. When I moved to NYC’s East Village in the late 80’s everyone was dumping their vinyl for CD, and obviously a lot of people in the music business lived in the ’hood. Many of the LP’s I bought at the time were promo copies and some included white label radio pressings, which are often the best sounding pressing of a title I have. I was an early CD adopter and when I got my first high end rig after college, I found my $100 technics table (with an AT12SA Shibata cart) trounced CD and modest DACs of the era, and bought about 2500 lps when people were selling them by the milk crate for a buck or slightly more. A friend in that neighborhood recently told me in that era he left 2000 lps on a street corner one day for people to just take. |
@tomic601 I’m a huge Tubes fan as well and saw Fee Waybill perform years back. His persona on stage was quite the jerk but in person after the show proved to be a lovely, warm person. I haven’t found tube sources I like (although I’ve heard about a tube based strain gauge phono stage) but I have a full tube pre (Atma-sphere) which I only use the line section of, and tube input section of my amps (BHK300’s). It doesn’t sound at all Tubey or euphonic, but with the right recording sounds very lifelike. My reference is live music, not other Hifi systems. |
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Partly due to my age, I design and build almost exclusively with tubes (some hybrids with SS in a supporting role), and in my view they are by far the easiest way to get ready good sound. But in the end it’s all in the implementation. I just don’t have the necessary knowledge and skills to get get top notch sound out of pure SS. But there are are many very good designers out there who really have a handle on the subtleties of SOT SS design… |
My system is all tube. The Musical Paradise DAC has a chip of course, but the output goes directly to a tube output stage, then my preamp and my kt88 amp, both tube of course because that is what I build. I certainly have no desire to listen to anything else. The key is to pick a tube friendly speaker. I have a pair of Cornwall IV, which I rebuilt the crossovers on with better parts, and also Clayton Shaw’s Spatial X5. Both are wonderful speakers and very tube friendly. If you pick speakers that require high power SS amps... then that is what you are stuck with. Just my 2 cents |
there is the rare exception to that…. but it takes a slew of innovation to achieve it from a die hard tube zealot Richard Vandersteen; M7 high pass amplifier: Built in hanging truss HRS isolation, tube front end with liquid cooling into radiators with analog controlled pump No digital chip in the amp , analog controls for DC, low voltage, temp, pump speed, etc, single ended output, balanced input, no emitter resistors , 11 separate power supplies, cyclotron like output stages, 128 v DBS for both speaker wire and IC, the list goes on…. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/3803#&gid=1&pid=5 IF in Seattle, stop by for a listen…. |
This is an easy question to answer: in the preamp. Then the amp, but first the preamp. I think a tube preamp with a SS preamp is wonderful, but since I have both a Don Sachs' tube preamp and tube amp, during the hot summers in the Central Valley of CA I give Don's amp a rest so using my SS amps this time of year soften my cooling bills. Once the weather moderates, the tube amp is back in the rack. |
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I don’t think one can really experience what is special about tubes if the amp is not a tube amp. But, it is critical to audition the candidates and to choose the right amp for the particular speaker, room conditions, volume requirement, etc. It is far easier to end up with the wrong tube amp than a wrong line stage or source component. |
Listening to The Tubes - White Punks on Dope ( tubes ), counting my tubes… Just kidding. I do lust after the Brinkmann RonT tube power supply for my Bardo direct drive turntable….. For grins have a look at the Audio Research 750 power amp, a tube salesman wet dream… but i have heard it and wouldn’t trade it fir my hybrid tube / SS amplifiers…. fun… |
My use is at the pre amp. Can’t say if this is right wrong of best just what I am doing. I did read a few articles that stated they felt this was the best place to start. Also said with tubes in pre and ss at amps their is less chance for down time. If a tube goes out on your amp you are dead in the water. If a tube goes out in my pre amp I can by-pass tube stage and still keep rocking. Can’t say I will remain where I am for ever but happy with my sound for now. Enjoy the music any way you can get it. |
It depends on a lot of design considerations. If the component has AC from the power outlet converted to DC by a tube rectifier, that is at least one tube. Some gear also use tubes to regulate voltage. At earlier stages of amplification, most, but not all, use tubes that are actually two tubes in one glass envelope doing two functions. Different circuit designs will require different amounts of tubes even at early stages of amplification. As for the output stage, both design type and amount of output power determine the number of tubes. A single-ended amp can have as few as one output tube per channel. Push pull amps will have at least two tubes per channel, and the specific amount of tubes will depend on the amount of power the amp is designed to supply and the amount of power delivered by the specific type of tube chosen (different tubes vary greatly on output, my push pull amp with four output tubes per channel delivers only 5 watts per channel, a different design might deliver 100 watts). Then there are output transformer less amps that typically have many output tubes because they utilize many tubes in parallel to instead of a transformer to deliver the power in the form that can be used by the speaker. |
#of tubes? Depends on what the amp is doing and how it’s configured. A power amp could have a single power tube (SET) or it could have 8 paralleled push-pull output tubes. A phono amp could have only 2 tubes for gain and equalization or it could have an output buffer, tube regulators and rectifiers etc. You can see the 11 tubes in my phono amp here |
@pauly "I was just busting your balls as the term “mate” is often used to describe the activity that results in producing offspring. Matching is a more political correct term" Politically correct term...lmao..now thats funny to me. I however stand by my terminology...mate... If you do it wrong your still screwed , right? |
@has2be I was just busting your balls as the term “mate” is often used to describe the activity that results in producing offspring. Matching is a more political correct term. I have 2wpc SEP and 3.5wpc SET amplifiers so speaker matching is something I am very familiar with. Many people don’t have appropriate speakers for their tube amps and then conclude tube amplifiers to be inferior. Regards . |
@pauly "I prefer them in the pre and phono stage at minimum but extend it into amps with speakers that mate."...... I am simply saying when the choice of speakers mate with a tube amps ability to drive them I will extend tube use and introduce a tube amp into the mix. If speakers too demanding, SS is used for the amp. Sorry, thought mating speakers and amp was pretty basic needed thinking... |
I was on another forum and a guy that identified himself as honcho at Bob Carver company stated that the place to start with tubes is the amplifier. This was different than the opinions of many here that the preamp is the place to start with tubes. I don't like fiddly or expensive, so I decided to start with pre — awaiting receipt of a Schiit Freya now. I will keep the SS preamp for variety and when the Freya is down temporary while I await tube replacement. |
few have tuners these days, but tube tuners are wonderful if you give them a strong enough signal. good tube equipment is noise free, many accept a bit of noise, I encourage fixing or changing to have noise free tube equipment. tube phono eq, like tube tuners, are wonderful. my old 2 track stereo tape player’s heads relied on tape eq in the tube preamp. typically tube receivers, thus tube eq and tube amp. same warm involving non-fatiguing sound. Now, 4 track Tape Deck includes internal SS tape eq, sends line level to tube amp. any other line level source, into/thru a tube preamp (any preamp), is really a line switcher, and volume pot, which is why you want a tube amp for line level sources to hear tube sound for all sources. the tone controls, filters, ’loudness’ are all tube based of course. try and find efficient speakers you love the sound of, thus keeping power requirements lower, thus less: heat; weight; cost; and more flexibility for placement. that makes it much easier to try tubes now, someday, many more choices in moderate power levels. buy thee a simple tube tester, gives you answers, confidence in your tubes when/if problems occur |
My phono preamps are all tubed, I own three...tavish, ear 834, and pro-ject tube box ds2. Also, my border patrol dac has a tube rectifier in the power supply. My opinion is solid state amp, preferably pure class A, and a tubed phono preamp if your into vinyl. Otherwise, a tubed preamp. Pair all this with something along the lines of a wharfedale, harbeth, spendor, or tannoy speaker. To me, this combo works magic. |
