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That "tube sound" and power ratings

This might be a newbie question since I've only begun researching tube technology. I understand to some degree the theory that tube sound is partly related to second harmonic distortion vs. the more prevalent odd order harmonic characteristics of SS. If "tubies" prefer that sound (I might be one of them), does it make sense to carefully match an amplifier's power rating such that it is NOT TOO HIGH for the speakers it's driving? If the rating is too high won't that mean lower distortion and hence less tube sound for a given volume for those speakers than a lower power tube amp (in general that is - I realize not all Watts are the same). So won't a high wattage tube amp have less of the special tube sound "tubies" like at their preferred listening volume?

I realize I'm likely missing something here. Set me straight!
hazyj
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Hello Al,
Yes I understand the premise that most speakers are designed with the intention of using transistor amplifiers. It seems what Ralph was explaining is their(designers) reluctance (or even rejection) to "recognized" his point as it pertains to tube amplifier -speaker interactions.
Charles,
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,116 posts
 
^^ Charles, I think human nature is the culprit: the most powerful human motivator being to look good, the second most powerful not to look bad. You fail both of those if you don't understand the difference between power and voltage if you design speakers.

BTW, the Tonian and Ocellia have both used the PHY drivers that I mentioned. I think Tonian has moved away from the PHYs but still makes very easy to drive loudspeakers.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
I get the impression that 4 ohm impedance speakers became the default
load once transistor amplifiers became plentiful and affordable. It could
also be that they are possibly easier to design and build. These designers
realized that if there's a difficult load to drive, just purchase a higher power/
current SS amplifier and the problem is solved. Perhaps higher impedance
speakers are more challenging to implement and designers simply followed
the path of least resistance. Sound quality may not have been the only
consideration for this direction.
Charles,
hazyj OP
90 posts
 
Anyone other than Mapman want to respond to Zkzpb8 posts?
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"09-25-14: Zkzpb8
From my experience I've seen a lot of tube amp owners who like distortion. Not SET guys with highly sensitive speakers, but the 10-20 Watt tube amp owners who mate their amp with a speaker rated much below 90dB."

I've never heard of anyone doing that. Are you sure they actually wanted the amp to distort all the time and not just prefer tube distortion if the amp distorts?

"A good friend of mine is a recording engineer and he always says "people love distortion"... In the studio throw a tube compressor on - and ''fatten" up the sound - warm things up. It's the same effect when someone uses a 10 Watt tube amp on a pair of speakers that are rated 25 Watts minimum. I see guys do it all the time - they're fully aware of the speaker's specs, and despite the manufacturer's advice to use more power they do it anyway. It's a seductive sound - but the product of distortion."

That's not the same thing. In the studio, what you're talking about above is signal processing. Its part of the creative process. Playback gear's job is completely different. The idea behind that is to reproduce the original event as accurately as possible. Making your amp distort on playback goes in the opposite direction of that goal. You don't want you home audio system to distort because you want to reproduce whatever is on the recording as best you can. Even if its distortion.
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