The Best Tube Amplifiers vs Spectron ?

comparisons between live and recorded music are in valid and hence unreliable. audible memory is very short.

if you want to come close(R) to a maningful comparison, you will have to make a recording yourself in your listening room asnd then substitute amps.

i suspect that amomg serious listeners there will be disagreement as to which amp minimizes inaccuracy. there are many variables entailed in the notion of accuracy and thus such comparisons are dubious, at best.

Michael_moskowich, I doubt that Wayne has heard everything out there either. A lot also depends on the speaker that is used with the amp- if designed for an amp that does *not* double power as impedance is cut in half, you will get tonal anomalies if you use an amp that can. So it gets tricky making a comparison between the two, unless you are working with a speaker that works equally well with tubes or transistors, and you would be surprised at how few fall into that category.

For more info see:

http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/paradigm_paper2.html

"...comparisons between live and recorded music are in valid and hence unreliable. audible memory is very short."

Rarely, I have read more horses..t then this.

First, SHORT-TERM audible (or other) memory is "very" short, indeed. I took word "very" in quotation because for different people this duration will vary and should be prolonged with training.

Long term audioble memory - the memory that music critic has, that professional musicians have, the memory of recording engineers, the memory of speaker designers like vom Schweikerts and Gallo... is short???? People who work decades and decades in audio environment, environmemt where luck of attention will cost you your job or success or both? These people have....excellent audioble memory. I am NOT saying that each of these people's memory is identical -it would depend on their "internal" ear-brain systems.

Mike asked simple albeit somewhat naive question. Initial critics correctly stated, IMO, that Spectron is not the only one amp "in the desert" (actually, if you like GOOD tube amps, hate weight and hate heat then ...yes, "one in the desert", IMHO only) there are other excellent amps, both solid states and tube. Also - not that many excellent amps around (Athmasphere is one of these few - my hat off to you, sir).

I feel that Brycee has summirized it excellently:
"I can see what musicians would like about the Spectrons as they are very accurate. To each his own. Enjoy!"

So, lets enjoy music "alive" and....re-created.

All The Best
Rafael

i made a suggestion for comparing amplifiers, namely making a recording of a live performance and then comparing the live performance to that which is genenerated by a stereo system,. this is a three part experimenet. live, stereo system with spectron amp and stereo system with some other amp. it would seem that this empirical approach makes more sense than the pronouncement of experts. i still maintain that the multi-dimensional nature of live music makes it difficult to compare live vs a reproduced music.

but i agree that one can select a favorite amplifier and enjoy the music regradless of the inaccuracies.

If your going to this years Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, VMPS is going to be doing a lot of live music in a big room using the RM-60 speakers, several vmps subs, and Atmasphere amps and preamp.

Good chance to do the live vs recorded ear test.

Dave