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In Reply to: RE: New Amplifier and the Tube .vs SS Debate posted by jaydacus on March 06, 2016 at 21:17:29
One number is worth ten-thousand adjectives. You can't make meaningful comparisons between pieces of electronic gear without venturing into the world of numbers at some point. Otherwise, everything is "loved" by someone somewhere and gets a Spiderman juice box and a participation medal. (See: The Absolute Sound)Tubes regulate the flow of electrons. So do transistors. The main thing that distinguishes a tube amp from its SS equivalent is the inefficiency of the tube amp.
If you're driving your equipment to the point of distortion, the circuit technology being employed isn't a meaningful issue.
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It's amazing that hipsters who insist they can hear sampling remnants in interpolated 24/96 digital waveforms can somehow fail to detect surface noise from their own vinyl LPs.
Edits: 03/08/16Follow Ups:
Efficiency depends as much on topology as the amplifying elements. Compare a Mark Levinson class A SS to a Dynaco 70, and it's no contest. :)
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
Really?
You're going to compare a $5000 SS amp to a $500 tube amp. I hope that would be a no contest.
That being said I think some people would still prefer the ST70 depending on which incarnation we are talking about. The early ones were pretty awful from what I hear, but there are heavily modified versions that could give even a $5000-$7000 SS amp a run for its money......and still cost under $1500.
Did you read the post directly above? I was referring to efficiency. The Levinson SS consumes megawatts compared to the Dynaco. As for sound, I heard the Levinson in the mid-70s. I wasn't impressed. Smoother than a ST-70, but nothing to write home about. There have been numerous tube amps that do better.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
But, there is another distinguishing 'thing.'
If a modern - or modernised - valve amp has maximised its storage, which they can do to an extent which SS amps would have real difficulty getting even close to, then that amplifier can IME outdo most SS amps, even in the bass.
Large storage PSU's consistently sound better.
I used to own a rebuilt and rethought STAX DA80 pure class-A SS amp, new and higher uf PSU caps, SR diodes, and with its slightly cloudy OEM driver stage replaced. 45WPC into 8 ohms and very nice.
Compared with two rebuilt max-storage LEAK St20s with a teeny bit (1 to 2 dbw) less total power 20 watts plus maybe 6? watts. Passive bi-amped.
Guess what all experienced listeners preferred? The passive bi-amped set-up.
Guess which technology was happiest playing real loud?
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
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