Tube Amp soundstage


I hope everyone is safe and healthy during these strange times. I wondering if someone could explain to me the reason my tube amp has a deeper soundstage than my SS amps? Two years back I built an Elekit 8200 which puts out around 8-10w/c in ultra linear mode, depending on the power tubes. I usually run KT88’s or 6L6’s, and less often EL34’s. It powers a pair of Tekton Enzo 2.7’s which are quite efficient at a claimed 98db. The SS amps I’ve used with these speakers include a vintage NAD 35w receiver, a Musical Fidelity m3si @ 85w, a Rogue Sphinx @ 100w and a Hegel H80. Now granted, non of these amps are what I would consider high end audio, but no matter what, the little tube amp always seems to have a deeper, more 3-D soundstage and the SS amps sound a little flatter. Same source, same DAC, same speakers and cables. There are things I appreciate about the SS sound, such as tighter, better defined bass and an effortless ability to play louder (which I do less and less), but every time I rotate the little tube amp back in, I hear a slightly more organic sound and that deeper soundstage.
dtapo
Because I’m a valve person, I have to be honest with you. Well I don’t have to be, but I’m gonna be. :-)

Sweet EL34s, plump KT88, and the all time best 6L6 (I think)

The distortion the valves offer, are the perfect form of chaos when they are done right. The wrong part, that valves ADD, according to a scope, are that "Mojo" you (and I) like.. The imperfect, becomes "Perfect".
I also think that’s why it sounds "THICHER", more of it....

I have heard low watt SS that could get pretty darn close to that perfect, imperfection. A lot of the Pass designs, and their influence on design, put a big smile on my face... The old Adcom, Threshold, First Watt, and Pass. Mark Ls, in a class of their own.. MHO

If I want surgical, clinical , sterile, Krell and a few others come to mind.

Class D, All together different, but they have a good place for me, and my gear...

Regards
The distortion the valves offer, are the perfect form of chaos when they are done right.  

There is a reason for this. Tubes, and analog devices in general, tend to the same even order harmonics that are so prevalent in nature. Everything from violins and drums to tambourines and human voices is chock full of even order harmonics. So when a tube amp adds even a few percent of even order harmonics our brains easily blend it into one seamless whole. 

Solid state and digital however are not at all like this. The distortions they produce are far lower in magnitude, that is true. But we are so much more sensitive to unnatural odd-order harmonics that this seems not to matter. We hear it as more, even while we measure it as less. 



Tubes made the music sound as it should. Christmas tree lights were thread-in incandescent bulbs. The Mistletoe was fresh, as you'd try to be after too much (homemade) eggnog.
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