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Tube versus SS


Since I just installed some rather expensive NOS 6922 Telefunken tubes in my Phono-preamp, that yielded outstanding results, I decided to compare CD to Phono.

From the best of "Jacintha", CD, I selected "Danny Boy". Her voice emerged deep center stage from a jet black noise free back ground. It sounded more like what I expected from the analog.

That was followed by special LP's of Dinah Washington that had recently arrived. Those LP's were everything I expected with the NOS 6922 Telefunken Tubes in the Phono, but the surprise was the fact that I couldn't tell the two apart; both were outstanding.

What may surprise you, is the fact that I attribute these outstanding results from the COVID 19 "lock-down" which has given us the quietest "grid" ever in history. That means those of us with lesser means have the same AC power as the richest who can afford expensive AC power "clean uppers".

BTW, I have made extensive comparisons to recordings made before and after, the lock-down that confirm just how much of a difference it's made. I must admit that I had doubts about expensive power conditioners, but this confirms that fantastic results come from taming the wild AC.

It's my belief that we can not achieve better results than we have from the current "quiet grid", which means power conditioner or no power conditioner, we are all presently getting the same results.

Could it be that the dominant factor when comparing tube and SS when they both are of comparable quality is "The quality of the AC"?
   
orpheus10
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

On the serious side of this equation, I was listening to some recordings I had made on reel long before this COVID 19 thing, and compared them to some recent recording using the same identical records and equipment, and I noticed the recent recordings were more musical in every way.

This occurred with absolutely no change in anything else. Stop and think, all audio equipment has to change AC to DC, and if the AC is better today than it was before, "All" of your audio will be better. Quite possibly, the only people who can tell this difference is those of us who recorded music before this COVID 19 thing and know what before and after sound like.
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
@orpheus10 Improvements in air quality ( / a reduction in airborne particulates) and a reduction in seismic activity were also widely reported and studied.

I would expect transmission of radio frequencies (etc.) to have also dropped during the lockdown, especially due to the cessation of business based activity.

If you are under flight paths, then airborne resonances as well.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00965-x (this one re. seismic activity)
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Quite possibly, the only people who can tell this difference is those of us who recorded music before this COVID 19 thing and know what before and after sound like.


You said you cannot hear the difference between Jacintha on CD and Dinah Washington on LP. I would want to change the subject as well. All the same, you did. Awful hard to take your word on how anything sounds until we clear that one up.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,222 posts
 
It’s an interesting theory and might even be true in some cases but like a lot that goes into being an “audiophile” that is all it is. 

orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 

Why are many of the most expensive preamps 2 box units? Do they have two boxes just to impress you? Of course not, they have one box exclusively devoted to turning AC into DC for the signal section.

Why do those who understand these things pay so much for capacitors that are involved in turning AC into DC? Audiophiles who don't even know Ohms Law, have observed that their rigs sounded the very best at times like "New Years Eve" night.

While your rig is sounding better, there are a number of reasons you haven't noticed this. My neighborhood is not the only one on "lock-down"; this is fairly universal.
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