Tubes, tone, and old age.


FWIW, just a short story about how things can change. 30 years ago I had two high power tube amps with SED KT88's. Bought a backup set (or two). Sold amp. What to do with tubes. Nothing, I just put them in a big drawer. Pulled them out every few years and always found them powerful but a tad bright. Never got an amp which served them well and I kinda forgot about them. 

I got old. Needed new KT88's. What the hell, I pulled out the old SED's. Interestingly (to me at least) the upper frequency retained its clarity but what was bright in yesteryear, now matched the natural loss of some high frequencies in my hearing due to age. Hog heaven!  

Point, if any, to this story is when you go out to buy tubes don't forget that the sound of tubes can and will vary because of the hearing of the seller as well as his knowledge of how they will sound in your system. 

newbee

@llg98ljk Or maybe they prefer tubes over solid state because solid state has distortion that they don’t like.

Many people swear by tubes and scoff at solid state. Why? because it has distortion that people like.

Along this line, it has been stated by someone whose opinion I trust, that many high end speakers are bright at the high end because the target market is older, affluent individuals who have hearing loss at the upper end.

So shop for speakers that are certified flat (unless you have hearing loss).

Jerry

And on a related note, what measurements - if there are any - show the difference in sound between SS and tubes?

Could one see this on a frequency chart?

I suspect that this is one of those areas where measurements tell us very little.