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"Tubes are better?" Philosophical ramble...

Posted by mr.bear (A) on May 16, 2015 at 11:59:32

In Reply to: Solid-State Preamps late 80s - better than tubes ? posted by J. Phelan on May 14, 2015 at 08:56:32:

Someone has to offer the opinion that there are great tube amps and great solid state amps, and of course lesser-performing versions of each. Every amplifier imparts a sonic signature. I hold on to the hope there was some actual *listening* involved to pick good sounding versions of each, but I doubt it was of much real value.

In the 80's there was a massive swing to SS slimly (good spell-check correction for 'simply,' eh?) due to supply/demand. As the monster manufacturers like Sony and Matsushita went to 100% SS for their billions of consumer products, there was a corresponding massive availability of transistors and engineers to play with them, so 99% of new gear was SS. As the manufacturers "swung" over to SS and the advertising dollars swung, and the mags had boatloads of SS gear to review. They bought into it because they had a gun held to their heads, having to constantly advance the notion that 'newer is better.'

I voted and bought a sweeeeet piece of Nelson Pass SS stuff in that bygone epoch, a Forte preamp that sounds wonderful, amazing in fact. It has been powered on for 25+ years, silent and happy, and has never needed a new set of 6 x $20+ tubes to sound lovely. Tubes became an aficionado thing, realistically. I saw someone using cold-cathode gas filed regulator tubes! Jeez! If you've convinced yourself that you need them for good sound, good luck. Try finding replacements at the local drugstore- look deep under the tube-tester, down there past the bandaid aisle...

Of course, it's about the design that goes in rather than the broad category of devices. I bought my Forte because it sounded lovely. Not because it used transistors or tubes, or anything else. Maybe even op-amps can sound lovely, but I'm not convinced yet- gotta give 'em another decade to shake out.

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