Can tube amps give true high end bass?

I think it's horses for courses. My choice for an amp if I was going to play Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze would be SS. I'd want that woofer going out as far as it could and coming back and stopping when it should. I also have an original master of a jazz trio recorded with very expensive mikes and no compression. The bass sounds best with my SET. I hear much more detail which in that situation makes it better for me.

Can tube amps give true high end bass?

Let's assume the speakers are optimally set up in the room (bery few are). Also, that "hi end" bass means as close to the original as possible.
Given these premises, of course a tube CAN produce bass...

It's not primarily a tube vs. ss question. It's a matter of application.

Comments such as

I also have an original master of a jazz trio recorded with very expensive mikes and no compression. The bass sounds best with my SET

can make sense: the set offering very linear amplification (within its limitations) will obviously sound superior to a less linear amplification circuit...

Keep in mind that tubes offer the advantage of a (limited) linear amplification range, whereas transistors need some feedback to stabilise their operation.

The common misconception is that ONE amplifier, be it tube or ss should be called upon to amplify signals in linear fashion going fm dc to daylight, and drive a speaker, in turn expected to reproduce sounds from dc to daylight in a linear fashion...

In an ideal world, we'd have amps for mid-bass down and amps for the rest of the spectrum -- but we don't.

So of course we are ultimately left with the often frustrating task of having to try out infinite spkr-amp combos in hope of striking the magical set-up -- be it tube or ss.

Audiobb, I am surprised the 300B sounded better than the Cambridge consider the fact that you were using B&W 602. Had you been using appropriate speakers, you may find your 300B capable of the same (or better) bass than the Cambridge.

+++ But these 300B monos could be improved with better output transformer +++

Possibly, but it's bad would most certainly be improved by speaker presenting a more benign load. As an analogy, think of using a 300B of B&W equivalent to diving a Ferrari on the beach ... not very smart.

Regards
Paul

It's so hard not to generalize here. I've heard a lot of systems where the bass did seem a bit bloated or sluggish with tube gear, but, when that is certainly not the case with all tube gear. All of the very best sounding systems I've heard were driven by tube gear and of all different sorts -- single ended, low-powered pushpull (particularly based on Western Electric components), and OTLs.

I don't know, and don't really care if the bass went super low or if the system was capable of really prodigious output, what I do know and care about is whether the tonal quality of bass instruments is right. A lot of systems touted for their bass quality actually don't deliver properly tuneful bass.

Jmaldonado, can you please explain why you feel a tube amplifier needs at least 40wpc to good bass?

I know that statement is patently false as I have seen published numbers of a Decware 2wpc amp going down to about 10Hz at –3db, but I would like to hear your spin on how you correlate frequency response to output power.

Regards
Paul