Why tube rectification?

@atmasphere , your mention of a better diode brought me to attention like a retriever near a duck pond. I went right to Mouser to learn a bit more and I would like to try subbing them into my Decware Zenkit1 and possibly my Dynakit ST-35. The Zenkit uses a pair of Vishay RGP10M-E3/54 diodes and the Dynakit uses a pair of IN4007 diodes. Could appropriate HEXFRED diodes be used to replace the existing diodes in each amp without other modifications?

The Zenkit is more of interest because that power supply has been troublesome from the start. Initially it had ~60-120 hz hum problems that I reduced by adding more capacitance to the power supply. But lately there has been an intermittent sound while playing that is more in the 1000-2000 hz range. Your mention of oscillation caused by the solid state diodes around 2 khz earlier in this thread make me think this could be diode related.

The St-35 has been nice and quiet right from the start so I may not mess with that unless it seems there is something to be gained.

Tell me more and thanks for being generous with your experiance as in the past!

Thanks Invalid, everyone else I mention this to just thinks it is crazy.  After 24 or so years of running tube gear, the first tube "failure" I've had is those pair of 300B rectifiers; a shelf collapsed on to the power supply unit which has the tubes out in the open and both tubes got crushed.

Could appropriate HEXFRED diodes be used to replace the existing diodes in each amp without other modifications?

If the equipment is already designed with solid state rectifiers then yes, there are HEXFREDs rated at 1200V with plenty of Amperage.

Because it sounds better.

@sounds_real_audio This is really debatable (I’m doing it right now...).

I’ve found that using properly snubbed semiconductors in the power supply sounds better and measures better than a tube rectifier. They have different design requirements of course (apparently not everyone understands how to snub them for example). If used correctly I find no tradeoffs.

FWIW, one of the best tube amps from the vintage era was the HK Citation 2, which employed a solid state supply. It was a Voltage doubler style which was common with many American tube amps (ex.: Fisher).

@atmasphere  most tube equipment manufacturers don't use the correct tube rectifiers for higher power amplifier, most of the mainstream full wave tube rectifiers drop too much voltage at higher power.

@invalid This is an interesting assertion. If you were building a 60 Watt PP amp based on KT88s what rectifier would you use?