Tubes... what do they do?...

"Tubes, what do they do?"

Warm your room and your soul! :-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

They replaced transistors.

I would say it is a matter of taste what different types of amplification moves you. I would say tubes lends a small degree of realism to the reproduced music. You can mention that you have a tube stereo to average individuals and you will be looked as an excrentic, until you play some music.

It produced this warm, soothing glow that takes your mind off of the cares of life, and your system, as it ever so gracefully distorts the signal to its final output. Not exactly what you would call a tube fan, but I have done some research conducted by independent sources and historical periodicals. Once you understand what you are reading as far as charts, specs, and graph; and apply this to to the overall effect of the systems performance, you come to this same conclusion.

Let it be known...my opinion completely differs from the concensus of this thread and its contributors, and doesn't represent the opinion of audiogon. :)

Transistor amps generally have a very linear transfer function (until they clip). Transistor amps generally have a more 'S' shaped transfer function meaning that for low amplitudes, the gain is higher and for higher amplitudes, the gain tapers off. This can give the impression of more low level detail.