• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

First time hearing an SET

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....If an amp makes .001% distortion, then the most it can contribute to the signal chain is that amount. However, for this experiment, let's imagine your amp is 1% (threshold of detection).

The remaining 29% is from the drivers and possibly the enclosure.

It will not matter what type of amplifier you use (solid state or tube), neither will make that 29% speaker distortion sound better or worse.

Lastly, the distortion from an amp should normally be below the threshold of detection (for any amp worth its salt). That means that a tube amp or solid state amp should be nearly indistinguishable from each other when operated below its clipping point.
Boy I don't agree with that at all! This would mean that no source, preamp, or amp would ever sound different...short of clipping. This might be true if the distortions were exactly the same, just different in magnitude, but that clearly isn't the case.

You didn't use to run audio equipment testing lab for a magazine did you....??

EV3
 
The sound of valves or SS is very much down to personal preference.

Rock gods like valve overdrive distortion.

I run a mobile disco and have a valve mixer and love the warm sound it gives.

I wouldnt buy a guitar valve amplifier because of the cost, I use a soft limiter and a Zoom 747 pedal to get the sounds I want.

As for a 1 watt amplifier, in my case it would be useless, I play in pubs and clubs and need to be heard at the back of the room.
 
I would disagree again, even acoustic guitars sound sweeter with a valve distorting.

I have a Zoom 747 SS effects box that emulates valves very well.

Depends what you are trying to play and it is all a matter of personal taste.

An amp for an instrument is one thing and the performer has their preference of what they are trying to create.

An amp reproducing a recording for playback in a stereo environment is another matter.

The ideal amp is a straight wire with gain. It should be faithful to its reproduction...

Wait! What works for one person may not be what another likes... So, in the end it is personal preference. If one person wants a straight wire with gain that is their prerogative. If another wants some form of coloration (distortion) to their music, that, too, is their prerogative.

Yes, there is that personal taste thing again. You can argue until the cows come home and still not resolve this matter to everyone's satisfaction.
 
to wavebourn in refrance to your guess whys.......
i would say its due to the sound waves being refected, both inside the chamber of the insterment and in the room.
perhaps it is the same "distortion" even, or odd, that is presented by a set amp.
i say this as a question. i dont know. educated guess??

am i right?
 
I remember reading something that speculated that in the right situations a system using single ended amplification could actually be reducing overall distortion through harmonic cancellation. The idea is that the distortion caused by loudspeakers is primarily 2nd harmonic, as is the distortion from a single ended triode. This distortion could add together of course, but it could just as easily cancel each other out to some degree. There was of course an endless number of things that could cause problems with this idea, but it did seem to have merit in at least some situations.
 
I would disagree again, even acoustic guitars sound sweeter with a valve distorting.

I have a Zoom 747 SS effects box that emulates valves very well.

Now, try to convince any real audiophile to listen to the music through this device... I don't mean your solo guitar, I mean some real nice recording. Or, try for yourself. Especially, some orchestra that reveals all nastiness of inter-modulation.
 
Each tube amp is very different. I just upgraded my 2A3 single-ended tube amp from nickle steel Lundahl C-core LL1627 to LL1627AM amorphous C-core output transformer. The new OPTX provides much smoother, warmer and dynamic sounds.

You can't simply compare tube amps with solid-state one. They are just so different.

Johnny
 
I would agree they are very different and i have enjoyed the sound of some tubes over the years( had a Pr of Mc3500 in the past amongst others) but i still prefer to live with SS over tubes, of course not all Tubes sound good and the same for SS, overall i find that SS sounds closer to the source than tubes of course sytem load and demands are very important here IMO.


Being this is a technical forum and there are those here that give no credence to "sound" then why Tubes over SS, is there a measurable fingerprint as to what make them different would a tube amp designed along the same technical lines as an SS amp and produces the same distortion trail sound the same? is this a voltage vs current Paradigm ?
 
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