System - Tubes

[Bigfish8]

Guys:

I consider everyone that frequents here at AN to be serious about audio.  Do you think the results, so far, would represent typical percentages for people that love this hobby?  If so the results indicate 95% of us have tubes in our systems!

Ken

[richidoo]

Of those that truly LOVE the hobby and the exploration of sound quality and audio technology that the obsession inspires, I would say YES, most have at least tried tubes. But I think the majority of people who own high end audio equipment are not quite that obsessed so there are still plenty that have not tried tubes.... yet!  The new batch of inexpensive Chinese made tube products like EE, PrimaLuna, Cayin are making the din of tube lore louder and more consistent and harder to ignore. Resistance is futile!

With a SS amp, you pretty much connect it to anything and it will workfine up to clipping. With tubes, there are more considerations, more compatibility issues. If a tubeynoobie buys a tube product that is not compatible with the rest of his system the temptation is to blame the tubes for the inferior result, not the incompatibility because he doesn't know about that. Hybrids are attempting to cure this to make tubes foolproof but the sand is still there - albeit without gain so less noticeable.

The other thing is once you are accustomed to SS, there are some aspects that you can't live without. Quiet noise floor, bass grip, no maintenance, low priced for given power. To get a tube amp with same bass control as Sol's 60W SS amp requires hundreds of tube watts and a huge exotic transformer, and still wouldn't have the low impedance of transistor. And for the money, you could have a nice little classic Porsche instead. So tubes are a bit of an uphill battle for people already used to SS.

Another thing is the kind of music people listen to. Rock and symphonies really need the punch and feeling of clean power you get from SS, while tube's gorgeous tone quality lends itself to solo singers, chamber music, etc. which can get by with less bass slam and low distortion accuracy. Rock is the popular music of our era, so SS is the popular amp choice. Tubes can slam into speakers designed for tubes, but the design expertise and parts needed to maintain linearity are specialized (expensive.) Upgrading to a more refined SS amp on a normal speaker might cost the same as tubes with a specialized tube speaker.

But once bitten, the tube big is hard to cure.

[Rob S.]

well said Rich.

[bunnyma357]

I'll definitely agree that the chinese amps have opened the door for a lot of new people to experiment with tubes at a much lower entry price. I know for me it was the only way I was able to give a tube amp a try.

I think the SS bass advantage is actually less significant than it used to be since the use of powered subs to handle bass has gained in popularity. I also think that tubes really help rock music as much as they do other formats. I think a lot has to due with the listeners priorities - for me it is tone over impact/dynamics, regardless of the genre.


Jim C