Tubes vs Solid State - Imaging, Soundstaging, 3D

Atmasphere, Thanks for your explanation. I'm not much of a technician, but I'm curious about the effect of rise and decay times in amps and how they might affect sonics. I recall a time when the ability to reproduce a square wave was the holy grail of (SS) amps, but later some designers were finding that proper attention to the decay time was important and too fast of a decay could cause a sense of loss of low level detail. Accurate? Or just sales BS to justify a design which couldn't replicate a square wave? Or is this apples v oranges?

Can you comment. Thanks......

Neil Diamond? Now I'm REALLY upset...last word from me on the dearly departed (from the forum anyway), ALOHA!

I thought I'd get more hiss than I do from my Jolida, but it's actually less than what I had from my previous SS amps...including some well regarded designs. Again, maybe I'm lucky. You have to stick your ear next to the tweeter to hear any noise at all and except for LP surface noise, all is quiet on the Eastern front, except in my guitar room where it's noisy as hell and I just ignore it.

I'll respectfully disagree with Mapman 's assertion that modern implementation of NFB has been improved. When I hear amplifiers that utilize generous levels of NFB it's very apparent in that there's an artificial character quality of the sound. I just don't hear the same naturalness or realism of instruments and human voice. Simple tube circuits that omit or use minimal NFB are much better sounding and more convincing of reality.

I recognize that this is just my observation based on listening to many different amplifiers over the years. Mapman I certainly appreciate your satisfaction with your current class D amplifier and congratulations on your happiness with them. I acknowledge that we just hear things differently and may in addition have very dissimilar listening priorities.
I haven't come across a SS or class D amp that can approach what the well implemented no NFB tube power amps are capable of. For sure I'm in a minority as there are far more owners of SS amps compared to tube.
Charles,

Hi Charles,

No need to agree, but I suspect its a stretch to think that while technology has progressed in most every way greatly over the last 40-50 years, amplifier design has remained stagnant.

Whether or not a good modern CLass D amp with NF sounds as good as a tube amp or not is a different story.

I'd agree that they are not likely to sound the same, and each is likely to perform best in a completely unique and different system.

I've used many a good sounding "high end" system for reference in putting my own together, including many very good tube amp based systems.

I could likely not afford the tube amp I would need to drive my preferred speakers the OHM F5s to their max, nor the power bills that woudl come with it.

So my case is somewhat unique in that the OHMs are a somewhat unique design and case to optimize. The Class D amps do it though and in manner that brings the best of both worlds to the table in a way that works for me.

If I had the time, money and patience to deal with the tube amp I would need for similar performance with these speakers in particular, I would be tempted, but that is an alternate reality for me.

No one amp, speaker or anything holds all the cards. Each has different strengths or weaknesses. You can compare any particular aspect of design or sound you want, but its just a small part or the total story.

Just saying. ITs fun to gab about such things I think.....

Sometimes, I feel like A Poor Misguided Fool.

Another musical interlude....