JM, back in the 1990s Carver made a lot of claims about being able to make solid state amplifiers that were indistinguishable from tube amps and built and sold many like the solid state Silver 7t which was intended to emulate the Silver 7 tube amps.
I vaguely recall that there were some tweaks to the feedback loop and a fairly large series resistor! (On the order of 1 ohm or so)
Carver is a consummate master of marketing (interpret as you will) and made a lot of claims about being able recreate the sound of any tube amp with his solid state models.
He has been making this claim for about 20yrs now and there have been countless articles written about the claims and the resulting amplifiers. (By the way they are not bad sounding amps)
Here is one, but there are others: The Carver Challenge | Stereophile.com
I vaguely recall that there were some tweaks to the feedback loop and a fairly large series resistor! (On the order of 1 ohm or so)
Carver is a consummate master of marketing (interpret as you will) and made a lot of claims about being able recreate the sound of any tube amp with his solid state models.
He has been making this claim for about 20yrs now and there have been countless articles written about the claims and the resulting amplifiers. (By the way they are not bad sounding amps)
Here is one, but there are others: The Carver Challenge | Stereophile.com
I agree He is a God father of amp design but as for statement of making an SS Class AB amp to sound as good as a tube he may have rethought that seeing that on his manufacture site he only offers Class A tubes.....😀
Last edited:
There are a number of different tube buffers being sold at Amazon and Ebay which is a good place to start economically. Be forewarned though it may put you on a path to spend considerably more.
Oh, nothing personal, neither against you not even against Bob Carver himself, this is a means of living and everybody pushes his own products the way he sees fit, it's just it was something so preposterous 😱
Fully agree that he has designed and made excellent stuff, very advanced for its era, it's just that this last 20/30 years tube revival craze has forced many to adapt or die (commercially).
Clearly, even him.
FWIW here's another respected designer/builder, the mythical Alexander Dumble, saying some nonsense (again comparing Tubes vs.Transistors 🙄) about "delicate guitar sound harmonics not surviving when passing through the crystal lattice of transistors" 🙄
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVTj08qTwGw
Last edited:
I wouldn't go quite that far.. 🙂 He has had some interesting ideas here and there. The sunfire and amazing would fall into that category, the rest not so much. I would just say Carver is very good at identifying current trends and capitalizing on them.
Thank you for that clip of Alexander Dumble. The comments are funny!
Make note at that the guitar harmonics are being "squashed" by all the "crystal lattice(lettuce?)" in the transistor stomp boxes the guitar signal sees before the mystical Dumble amp. It would be nice if I could sell guitar amps I built for $30,000. I know a few people with deep pockets but I don't have the heart to be a crook and build up some lame hype around something so silly as a guitar amp just to make a quick buck. A good guitar player makes any amp sound good.
Make note at that the guitar harmonics are being "squashed" by all the "crystal lattice(lettuce?)" in the transistor stomp boxes the guitar signal sees before the mystical Dumble amp. It would be nice if I could sell guitar amps I built for $30,000. I know a few people with deep pockets but I don't have the heart to be a crook and build up some lame hype around something so silly as a guitar amp just to make a quick buck. A good guitar player makes any amp sound good.
And yes Bob Carver is a very smart guy that also happens to be a marketing genius that gives clever names to circuits in order to help sell the "technology".
One single ended tube in a preamp will inject the more natural distortion spectrum shape into the mix. If the poweramp is as clean as most are these days, the tube distortion, small as it is, can dominate, and give you a bit more warmth. 6SN7 is a top recommendation, but 8mA is enough according to the graphs I've seen. If you want to be exotic, you could follow it with a cathode follower buffer, and even replace the plate load resistor with a current sink, which will improve linearity, increase gain and perhaps most importantly give you much better rejection of power supply hum.I did this in a power amp I built.
Member
Joined 2009
Paid Member
Thank you so much Bob ,Ill keep this in mind ,i will probably just buy a prebuilt off Amazon. dont wont spend much as I already have quite bit in the SS... are the Russian made Electro-Harmonix 6SN7 EH Vacuum Tube any good ?
Last edited:
Thank you Scholl, but to see just how well a tube will enhance my SS I think I'll just buy a pre-built of Amazon rather stick allot money in the tubecad kits . those are very nice kits and I like how you can customize your kit . Maybe later.
Sanci Smart tube pre amp
I was actually thinking about a Sanci Smart http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BGLN5G/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3RWG6NP4Q4X1V&coliid=I1PN449I0CFF5J it comes with its own transformer for hook up and play. Ill just drop this into my SS inline after the potimeters...
I was actually thinking about a Sanci Smart http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BGLN5G/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3RWG6NP4Q4X1V&coliid=I1PN449I0CFF5J it comes with its own transformer for hook up and play. Ill just drop this into my SS inline after the potimeters...
Attachments
Last edited:
Consider sticking with the single ended tube common cathode type gain stage with just resistors. I find they sound best. I theorize that adding constant current sources or going SRPP may be better for noise, drive and specs. but they diminish tube sound. Not as nice.
YMMV
YMMV
I now own a very simple tube pre as you describe but I am in the process of building the "cleaner" SRPP pre just for comparison. I love my simple tube pre with SS amps. I feel like the SRPP is going to be more like a SS pre but you never know until you try and I like to build.
Scholl, please bear with me Bro. as I,m a greenie to tube amps ,you say stick with a single ended tube ? what is single ended ?
- Status
- Not open for further replies.