Tube input/IC output - like cooking with herbs ?

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I have been attracted to the tube input IC Chip output concept. If I ask myself why , I would say that I expect the sound quality ( what ever we mean by that ) to be dominated by the tube and power boosted by the chip IC. Here the chip IC is considered so good that it leaves almost no signature of it own.
The IC has a very clean harmonic spectrum. Then add the tube which has its own very audible/visible harmonic spectrum. The overall sound would then be dominated by the tube 'sound'. With negative feed back this can change considerably as the distortion levels will fall and the harmonic spectrum changes maybe even causing it to sound worse than without NFB. Measured performance would be very good I guess.
So different tubes with their own ' spectrum' or 'sound' could produce different results with an IC power amp. So this concept is something like 'cooking food'. It would be like using herbs
( not all at the same time !) in food! Is it not ?

So if we can make a VERY clean output buffer ( with greater output than a chip IC ) and drive it with a tube with no NFB, it should produce very good 'tubey sound' ! Wouldn't this be better than a transformer coupled tube output ? If not , why not !
Cheers.
 
I've tried that in many different applications. Whatever I did the transistor version never ever sounded as good as a good quality DHT with transformer. Transmormers are not as bad as many think. With transistor output you can only come to the level of penthode push pull amps, not to single ended triode, imho. It's not only the driver that makes the the sound an amp, it's only part of it. You can get better dynamics with transistors but as it comes to soundstage and ease of playing music the triode still wins.
 
Depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to make the most neutral amp possible (i.e., no "sound" of its own), this is not a great approach. Colorations are additive, not complementary.

If you're trying to achieve a certain set of colorations characteristic of tubes, this can work assuming you set the tube stage up to get you the requisite set of distortions. The IC will just pass that along without modifying it.
 
Adding colouration ............

...........trying to achieve a certain set of colorations characteristic of tubes........

Yes I think that's what some people want. The tube colouration being attractive ( audibly ) as compared to what they get from ss circuits.

As far as uncoloured neutral amps are concerned I think this is a pretty debatable issue. Are there really totally neutral amplifiers?If so why do we get "better amplifiers" every year ?
If we are 95% close to the ideal , surely the remaining 5% should be "very hard " to find or determine.

Can anyone suggest some commercial amplifiers that are really neutral. Neutral with any speaker load .
I think that this is unattainable considering that we end up deciding the issue with a pair of ears that are definitely different for each human being.
But if we can have fun tweaking stuff and "hearing improvements" it is a good thing. Our group certainly has a lot of fun being involved in such activities!
Cheers.
 
Re: Adding colouration ............

ashok said:


Yes I think that's what some people want. The tube colouration being attractive ( audibly ) as compared to what they get from ss circuits.

Can anyone suggest some commercial amplifiers that are really neutral. Neutral with any speaker load .
I think that this is unattainable considering that we end up deciding the issue with a pair of ears that are definitely different for each human being.
Cheers.

Halcro??

T
 
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