my music taste, is rock, new wave, rock jazz, mail vocals etc!!At the moment I’m running a pair of Zu, souls MK 2, they were great with a tube amp, but I’m running them though a pair of Solid State mono blocks, 175 ohm per mono block, the sound is a bit on the harsh sound overall, but not on all recordings!!
@daveyonthecoast You do realize that solid state amps are known for harshness, right?? That simple fact is why tubes are still in production. That simple fact is what has driven the tubes/transistors debate on the Internet since its inception! The reason has to do with how tube amps and solid state amps make distortion.
Solid state has a lot less distortion; the problem is the masking principle of the human ear/brain system. The lower ordered harmonics are kept at a low level but the higher ordered harmonics not so much. In a tube amp, while it overall has more distortion, the presence of the lower orders *masks* the presence of the higher orders. This allows tubes amps to generally be smoother sounding and for whatever reason, bring out more detail and soundstage palpability.
Now I should point something out here: **it does not matter what sort of music you play!** Electronics do not favor one type over another- this is one of the biggest myths in audio. I design amps that get good reviews and awards in the high end press. I listen to rock, ambient, electronia, ethnic folk, classical- all sorts of music: if an amp or speaker is really good at one genre, it will be good at **all** genres because all the same things are needed to be good regardless of genre.
IMO/IME if you change out speakers to get rid of harshness, you’ll flush a lot of money down the loo, as it will still be harsh because the amplifier is the issue, not the speaker. If you like smoother sound with plenty of detail, you’ll need to get a tube amp. They can play plenty of slam- especially on ZU Audio speakers which are easy to drive.
