how close in sound can a tube and ss amp sound ?
"But so far no-one is acknowledged as having found a means of causing a transistor amp to actually sound like a tube amp." I agree for the most part, but see The Carver Challenge for an exception. I believe Carver marketed an amp based on results of this challenge, but that seems to be the end of it. |
Agreement. My Rowland Model 6's sounded, and my darTZeel sounds, quite similar to my VAC Renaissance amps, but not identical. There are strengths to each design. I should also add that my darTZeel has not been retrofitted for the improved biasing circuit that is now available for it, so it's not being run optimally, and since we're doing comparisons, the Rowland, while excellent, is not the equal of the darTZeel. |
I don't think it's commonly agreed what a tube amplifier sounds like anyway. To say that you want a solid state amplifier to sound like a tube amplifier, well, what kind of tube amplifier and in what way? In broad generalizations, an OTL does not sound like a SET does not sound like a Push Pull. Same with EL-34 versus EL-84, or 45 versus 2A3 versus 300B versus 845. Tube amplifiers are variously described as being euphonic, transparent, warm, extended, rolled off. In my (albeit) limited experience, "dimensionality" and especially "fatigue free" seem to be hallmarks of what a (very) good tube amplifier will do that most solid state implementations find challenging without some other compromise. Wilson |
"Sounds like" or "sounds the same" are phrases often used interchangeably here, when in fact they are quite different. IME, the former is possible on very rare occasion while the latter is not, at least not yet. I have owned many of the Class A Pass amps, both Aleph and X.5. From that perspective, on a few occasions when hearing a new system and not first looking at the components, I have been hard pressed to identify the type of amp playing. I have heard very good SS and very good tube amps sound similar and pretty convincing. To answer the OP, I think they can sound fairly close, but not the same. |
The issue is going to be the distortion structure. Tubes in general favor the lower orders and depending on the amplifier technology can make a lot or a little of the even orders, usually with not a lot above the 5th. (This is a general statement, for example our amps are fully-differential so there is no even-ordered harmonic at all until you approach clipping.) Transistors for the most part are absent the lower orders. Instead they favor the odd orders and higher ones at that, usually the 5th, 7th and 9th. Now they do this only in trace amounts, but many tube amps don't make them at all. The odd orders are heard as brightness and also makes the presentation seem louder. The lower orders are heard as warmth, bloom, that sort of thing. So either way you look at it, distortion is what we are trying to get rid of and as far as the tubes/transistor thing goes, its two ways of doing that with a different price. Fortunately topology plays a role too, so its not cut and dried- IMO the variations we see are what make the high end part of the industry so interesting. |
