Why don’t tube amps sound like tubes anymore?

+1 @mozartfan 

3rd note,,I've heard a tube amp intergrated retailed for $2100 back then, now like $3500+,, make music sound live in your room.

FYI: Quicksilver Integrated is $1995, right now.

I think it depends on the amp and also tube type. My first tube amp was a c-j Premier 11a I hated that amp it sounded like SS to me, and I swore of the 6550 tube then and there as well. Overall the trend has been to greater transparency and frequency extension but there's still gear out there that sound like tubes.


Tube rectification is a good place to start also I would never buy an amp with SS rectification.  My amp which was built by my dealer has a mix of modern and vintage parts and sounds very tubey in a good way. It uses vintage output transformers and output transformers are another key component.


Class is another issue some tube amps are Class A some are Class AB. Class A will sound warmer and more tube-like. Also how the amp is wired triode vs ultralinear. Plenty of variables, also in a very general sense higher powered tube amps will sound worse i.e. less like tubes.

A class D tube amp sounds delicious 

They called it 'perfection': a dealer some time ago described a newly received Nightingale Gala vacuum tube amplifier as follows: "It's superb... One cannoot say whether it is a SS or vacuum tube amplifier.' 

Nonsense...especially with single ended amps. If clarity and improved design for clarity is to be questioned that's just silly, as well as SS amps that, as Nelson Pass says "sound more like tubes" in a good way. It's the harmonic rules you just can't break easily, although Nelson tries successfully to do just that. Read why he likes the transistors in his SIT stuff. Also many, many modern (Gold Lion KT77s anybody?) tubes sound great, just as old tubes sometimes don't. I do get that great tube amps can be expensive as my Dennis Had SEP was 1200 bucks! (it was 4 months old...so it WAS used) And my Freya...don't even ask...I've got nearly 2 grand in just those two things...wow! Note these are both very well made and seemingly noiseless. Also, many may not realize there's a very large market for "reissued" tube guitar amps (nobody reissues old hifi tube amps, do they?) of all sorts trying to exactly replicate circuits  from 50s Fenders and old Vox amps, etc. These amps are generally great sounding things, and I've owned both old and newer single ended and push pull tube guitar amps and either sound amazing.