2. misc-audio
  3. 1383059307

Digital Source with Tube Amplification

For perspective, I will be turning 36 next week so I didn't grow up listening to vinyl and have never really experienced tube amplification. I am getting a Yaqin EL34 tube integrated in the next couple of weeks and my dad thought it would be fun to use his vintage turntable as a source for a true analog listening experience. Logistics will likely make this difficult as we live states apart.

This discussion made me wonder what other peoples experiences have been using different combinations of gear. On the analog end you have a turntable and tube amplifier and on the digital end you have a CD player and a solid state amplifier.

I am curious if the people that prefer the analog systems enjoy the sound of a turntable with a solid state amplifier or a CD player with a tube amplifier more. Is one combination more analog sounding than the other in your experience?

Obviously, every experience and system is different so I am just looking for general observations based of your experiences.
mceljo
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
This is like the scientist teasing the mice......
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
Onhwy61 - I absolutely believe that there's some truth in almost every caveat that is mentioned, but my point is that these types of things should be assumed and unecessary to bring up in every post.

For example:
Jmcgrogan2's post could have simply said, "In my experience I'd rather listen to an AAD CD than a digitally mastered LP so assuming that the album being used is an analog recording with analog mixing, I would choose 1, 2, 3, 4 as my preferred order of system combinations generally speaking."

I would then take this to be his general opinion and not absolute fact in every case on every system combination. I'm guessing that some of the rest of the post was provided tongue in cheek, but you get my point.

Jmcgrogan2 does bring up an interesting point that a digitally mastered LP isn't superior to the CD. I have a coworker that strongly prefers vinyl, but says he can't really tell a difference between a digitally mastered LP and the same CD.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
When I record vinyl to CD or digital CD res .wav file, I am generally not able to tell that CD or digital file is now the source.

I'm not saying my vinyl playback rig is the best out there, but it is pretty good, better than most, and sounds wonderful to me, so I am confident in saying it ain't no slouch either. And I think my digital is pretty well up there as well.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
10-31-13: Mceljo
Jmcgrogan2 does bring up an interesting point that a digitally mastered LP isn't superior to the CD. I have a coworker that strongly prefers vinyl, but says he can't really tell a difference between a digitally mastered LP and the same CD.

I concur a digitally mastered LP sounds about the same as a CD to me, and bad CD's too, as most of this digital mastering was done in the 80's and 90's when digital was a trendy buzz word, but not done very well at all. In this case (digital mastered LP) I would rather have the CD with tube amplifier over the vinyl with solid state. However, if the LP is mixed and mastered in the analog domain, I would prefer to listen to vinyl with a solid state amp than a CD or digitally mastered LP on a tube amp.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
In keeping with the hypothetical choices/ pairing options put forth by Mceljo I'd take CD with tube electronics rather than analog record with solid state electronics. I'll skip the caveatscable.
Charles,
More to discover