More Tubes = Better Sound


I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on the sound quality of using more tubes to get the same power as an amp that uses less tubes? I had a pair of VTL MB 750 and they had 12 tubes for the output. I am looking at an ARC ref 600, however, it is 250 watts less and uses almost 3 times as many tubes as the VTL MB 750's. does anyone know the logic here? I am thinking of passing up on the 609's due to the expense if the tubes, but is there an advantage to using so many tubes?
128x128richdeben
Generally, I would say the less amplifying devices in an amplifier, be they tubes or transistors, the shorter the signal path and the better the sound. That may explain why, at least in my experience (using Jadis, Krell and ARC amps in the past), assuming a speaker load that's not power-hungry, lower-powered amplifiers by a manufacturer generally have sounded better to me than the same manufacturer's higher-powered offerings using similar circuits, though the higher-powered units might offer superior power reserves and macro-dynamics for difficult speaker loads. I suppose an advantage to using more tubes (assuming they're the same type of tubes) to produce less power might be that the tubes are being pushed less hard and might therefore last longer, but I will defer to those in this community with more technical knowledge than I for the advantages.
@ Rcprince, Hi, That is odd that you have that opinion, My opinion is my New rebuilt, Everything 2014 as opposed to what was available in 2005 new inside and out Krell 700cx has a way better sound than the Krell FPB 200 I had many years ago.
Rcprince,
I agree with your general premise. Assuming equal quality of built and implementation I'd take the lower power amplifier with fewer parts, less circuitry and devices. I do believe that they will most often sound better with an appropriate speaker match. There will always be division on this topic.
Charles,
If you are going to have multiple power tubes, it is best to have a lot, assuming there is a mechanism to allow for current sharing among them.

The bigger problem in dealing with high powered tube amps is actually the output transformer, but that is a story for another thread.