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tube gear vs solid state...cable effectiveness

hi all,

i have a question and im not looking for a debate whether cables make a difference with sound or not. i use semi-high end ($3k and below) cables on my solid state gear (pre,cd,amp,etc.) with exellent results.

i was told by someone who builds tube gear that cables make more of a difference on solid state and are not as effective on tube gear.

i have no experience with tubes but have been thinking of getting into them, and therefore wondering if i should sell some cables off to help fund new tube gear.

your thoughts. thanks in advance.
nineballg
eugene81
270 posts
 
"... cables make more of a difference on solid state and are not as effective on tube gear."

Ridiculous in my experience.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
sub $3k for cable? cable may make a difference on both designs again depending on design, but it has nothing to do with price. the price of cable is only for brand and not for performance. one $5000 cable may sound like cwap vs. cheap radioshack. for performance you should match it to the parameters of the component particularly output impedance characteristics. i'm wired with pro-grade cables and wires that match good my components with total price <$300 for all of them.
larryi
4,139 posts
 
Perhaps, wire seems less important to tube equipment owners than solid state owners because the first step taken to tailor the sound of tube gear to one's particular taste and system interactions is to change out tubes.
With solid state gear, there is MUCH less ability to alter the sound so one is often limited to wire substitution. Hence, in that sense wire choice is more critical with solid state gear because there is little other means of fine tuning the sound.
sonic_genius
528 posts
 
I can hear more cables differences on tube gear than SS. My 300B amp reveals sonic differences with just about any PC, interconnect, or speaker cables.
akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,323 posts
 
my audiophile amigo has tube gear; and I have S/S kit.

They both are equally sensitive to the introduction of quality cables; and that means ALL three genres of cables: ICs, speaker cables, and power chords.
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