When to go solid state vs. vacuum?

Solid state has come a long way. Tubes are tubes. The best will quickly reveal itself. They can and will be amazing.

This was posted by Atmasphere on 4/19/12 :

"Matching amps and speakers is important!

Take a look at this link:
http://www.atma-sphere.com/Resources/Paradigms_in_Amplifier_Design.php

The B&W 802 is designed to work on an amplifier that can double its power when the load is cut in half. Specifically, it has an 8 ohm midrange and tweeter, but the woofers are in parallel and so are 4 ohms. Not only that, but the woofers are 3 db less efficient than the mid and tweeter. To correct this, its expected that the amplifier will double its power into the lower impedance.

No tube amp can do this and so on this speaker, tube amps will have less punch in the bass. Now if you had a speaker that did not expect that of the amplifier, then you could get more punch out of a tube amp than a transistor amp...

Its all in the match. Of course its my opinion that tubes offer more music much easier than transistors do (I know of one transistor amp that is really musical but it retails for over $100,000...).

Another issue with 4 ohms is that the speaker cable is more critical and also that any amplifier driving 4 ohms (tube or transistor) will not sound as good as it does driving higher impedances. So if you are seeking musicality, you may want to consider replacing the speaker as well."

It depends on the speakers. Some speakers sound better with tubes and other speakers sound better with solid state. Choose your speakers according to the type of amplification you intend on using. To me tubes are for music. Who wants to burn up expensive tubes watching a movie?

Butler amps would seem to give you the best of both worlds: Tube sweetness mated to MOSFET output. And the Butler amps NEVER need biasing and they will last 25 years or more - truly set-and-forget. Check 'em out:

www.butleraudio.com

-RW-

I have nothing against tubes , I still use tubes in my second system. My main system has slowly gone all solid state, didn't plan it that way but when I auditioned each component for upgrade S.S. just sounded best, and less hassle, no tube changes, less tinkering, more music.