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Tube Equipment: Gimmick?

I recently had a mechanical engineer (who has no interest in audio equipment or the industry) express amazement when I told him about the high prices of tube gear. His amazement, he said, stemmed from the fact that tubes are antiquated gear, incapable of separating signals the way (what we call "solid state") equipment can.

In essence, he said tubes could never be as accurate as SS gear, even at the height of the technology's maturity. This seems substantiated by the high-dollar tube gear I've heard - many of the things that many here love so much about the "tube sound" are wonderful - but to my ears, not true to the recording, being either too "bloomy" in the vocal range or too "saturated" throughout, if that makes any sense.

I have limited experience with tubes, so my questions are: what is the attraction of tubes, and when we talk about SS gear, do we hit a point where the equipment is so resolving that it makes listening to music no fun? Hmmm..or maybe being *too* accurate is the reason folks turn from SS to tubes?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts!
aggielaw
amandarae
512 posts
 
No offense intended! But it all boils down to this:

1. To Each His Own!
2. My personal preference is not your business!
3. What works for me may not work for you!
4. What I like is my own choice!

And lastly.....

5. My brain's sensory capabilities (especially ears) will never be the same as yours!

Pick one......

Cheers!
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
The attraction of tubes is the "presence" of the music, at least to me. Many ss guys will demur. The best tube and ss designs probably have more in common than differences, at least I keep reading it although I haven't realized it first hand yet, maybe the Boulder? Talking to an Engineer will resolve nothing, just check the archives here, a very popular topic it is.

You will get a straight answer by listening for yourself and come to your own conclusions, it really is the only way. Please keep us posted on your conclusions, I expect from the title of your thread, the controversy will continue.

mahandave
153 posts
 
There's great tube gear and great solid state gear. There is also bad tube gear and bad solid state gear. Your taste in music/volume/room will absolutly dictate the type of equipment you prefer. Unfortunately, you need to educate yourself by listening in person to get that preference. You cannot listen to other peoples oppinions because they are comming at the question ( what do I prefer for my type of music?) usually from a totally different direction and perspective. I never heard tube gear before until I was at Holm audio looking for a solid state amp when I was blown away by the sound comming from the other room. I could not believe how realistic the vocals sounded and how alive and bouncy the music was. Yup, it was a 3watt single ended Cary going into the Soliloqy 2A3's. I now know what is possable with tubes and know one will ever have any credability with me who says tubes are no good. I have now educated myself with the single-ended tube amps, the push-pull tube amps and have solid oppinions of what they sound like and in what kind of systems I would prefer each kind. I also now look for that SET magic when shopping for solid state as one reference for judging. My current system is all solid state (digital amps) but it has been totally chosen by the knowledge of knowing what tubes sound like which has given me a much much better "for my music" system than I have ever had before. If money were no object, I bet most music lovers would have several systems (tube and solid state) and many speakers-
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