Help learn diff.between SS and Tube

How to tell ? Well in general, if sounds good it's a tube amp, otherwise it's probably a solid state amp. Just kidding ( a little ) . Tube amps have a certain liveness to the sound, a little more 'thereness', like the performer is in your room. To hear it, listen to an electric guitar solo, a solo with a wood instrument (like a cello), and a vocal. Next listen to a ss amp in the same system. The notes with the tube amp will have a certain 'ring' to them. Imagine the sound of a wood guitar being played before and after a coat of paint is applied to it. It rings less after the paint is applied. My amps are actually solid state.

Cornfed- I think we all know that you prefer your ss to tubes, but I'd like to know what "high-end" tube amps that you've lived with - not necesarily expensive, but high-end in terms of sound quality. This is not meant as a put down, just that I'd like to know your references for your position. I've been in audio for nearly twenty years and have owned too many ss and tube amps to list. There are plenty of poor to average sounding tube equipment out there. However, to my ears, ss (even very expensive) just doesn't cut it longterm. Yes, ss is (usually) less "interactive" in terms of tweeking, but sonically I find it less emotionally involving and far less holographic as well. My experiences with Krell, Classe, Symphonic Line, Spectral, Goldmund and Gryphon have all been enjoyable, but I always end up with tubes. Again, I'm not discounting your sonic preference, just wondering about your past tube experiences.

I have yet to hear a good ss amp be as holographic as a good tube amp. A conventional tube amp is not as holographic as SET amps. SS lacks life and energy compared to SET amps. Listen to Jota, Viva, Wyetech to name a few. SS bores me silly in comparison. I don't know if it is in the small dynamic contrast or what but ss always leaves me thinking of something else other than the music.

I'm certainly not going to dispute what you hear cornfedboy since you have a 70k system and obviously have been at this for a while. I also don't pretend that I have heard all the best there is. Living in Central Florida, there aren't too many high end dealers other than the Miami area but I do have a question for you. What expensive ss amp is as holographic as a comparable tube counterpart? Also what ss amp do you use in your system? And if they also offer the "palpable presence" in the midrange of their tube counterpart I would be interested in owning it. It is not the glow of the tube I am enamored with it is the music tubes produce.

I wouldn't necessarily attribute the Anthem's lack of the slam factor to it's being a tube design. Actually, the tubes are only used for the input section. The rest of the amp is a ss as it gets. I would say that it is more likely that you are hearing the particular voicing characteristics that were designed into the amp. There are quite a number of tube amps with very strong slam factors... the Wolcotts, Sonic Frontiers Power 3's and even the Mesa Baron. There are lots of good sounding ss amps that have less than center-of-the-earth bass... the McCormack DNA1 comes to mind. For me, the sound of tube amps that I've liked is so much more... well, like real music. I also get a much stronger sense of "hearing the room" than I get with comparable ss equipment. Maintanance and "tweeking" isn't as big a deal as I initially thought it would be either.