old days source

[tavarish]

source question


In the old days the audio signal source was a hollow
state one.

for the tube radio receiver the source was a tube based studio
feeding the audio signal to the final transmitting tube of the radio station

and for the tape player it was an audio tape produced by a tube based recording studio

but now these sources are solid state (unless you have old tapes)
the question is for the old enough person who did actually listen to both cases
(old days and now)is there any difference in sound ? is it like the difference
between tube preamp-tube amp and solid state preamp-tube amp systems ?

[Colt45]

old radios had pretty crappy response, tape players weren't all hell either, for that matter. AM BCB is bandwidth limited by the FCC or somesuch.

a lot of transmitters still run tube finals...


The quality is kind of too **** for it to make a difference.


a better question might be does a LP cut on tube equipment sound different vs. SS? Probably not much.

[Tweeker]

The overwhelming majority of high power transmitters past about 2mhz will use a "tube" final of some sort.

Theres a whole lot of variables there, and source material is germane. I wouldnt expect many conglomo FM stations play much vinyl.

[Johan Potgieter]

Guess I declare myself "old" (senior, please! ) by replying here.

I had opportunity to listen at broadcast stations using both tube only and semiconductor only equipment. I could certainly not detect a difference, but as Tweeker said, there are many variables - monitors are not the same, etc. In SA tube broadcast amplifiers (line, RIAA, whatever) were mostly push-pull and balanced, with line transformers input and output. Typical tubes were 6J5, 6J7 and the odd 6V6 - designed about 1949 and did duty for quite a few years (I serviced them during varsity vac. work!).

These days Soundcraft is used almost exclusively (for interest, Douglas Self of transistor amplifier fame was chief development engineer at Soundcraft then, if he is not still). There is naturally also an extensive degree of digital stuff, memory banks etc.