Some of us see the world as a spectrum rather than as a dichotomy. Just saying.
I think I make it fairly clear where I'm coming from. I've been down the Tube Road before too. There's nothing wrong with that. However, once I learned to design for low distortion, I routinely found I preferred the clean sound over the tube sound. That's my preference. If yours is different, that's fine. This may be hard to believe, but I'm actually not forcing anyone to adopt my preferences or to buy my products. I don't think Chris is either.
Tom
Some folks actually do like both, including several on Stereophile's panel of experienced listeners. Which is a blessing for them; they receive great enjoyment from a wider variety of Musical Entertainment Devices than folks who only like one or the other.
If anyone here believes Stereophile has set up a false dichotomy with their "one or the other must be wrong" assertion, send them a Letter To The Editor. I imagine they are expecting to receive many.
If anyone here believes Stereophile has set up a false dichotomy with their "one or the other must be wrong" assertion, send them a Letter To The Editor. I imagine they are expecting to receive many.
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I'm a die-hard tube guy these days, and when it comes to most power amplifiers that's my usual preference. They can of course be made to very high standards with regard to linearity, and sound very good. They do simple very well, and can do complex very well when done right. Clipping behavior is good when designed right. My "daily driver" amps are almost always tube.
All that having been said, I started out in the solid state side of the world. Opamps, chipamps, and mosfet followers were my bread and butter in the beginning. Lafferty's Headbanger LM386 amp was my first, followed by a Cmoy and a Szekeres. Things got out of control from there thanks primarily to the old Headwize forum. I got into hybrid amps, and eventually tube from there. I understand both sides of things pretty well, and can see the draw from many angles, price, quality, performance, etc. Even now I tend to do my small-signal and line level processing with opamps in most situations.
Coming from a varied perspective keeps me humble. I've built some monster amplifiers, mosfet amps in the kilowatt range, half-watt tube flea amplifiers, and etc. I come across something that sounds good and is well made/designed, it catches my attention, regardless of what it is.
An example that I can's stress enough? Burning Amp this year. Hearing the LXmini setup driven by Tom's big boy Modulus setups was an almost spritual experience for me. It was just beautiful. Upon entering the room, I didn't even think about the electronics for a moment, as I was taken aback at how clean and natural it sounded. Any setup that can do that is a winner, in my opinion. It didn't hurt that the speakers and amps used were some of the best in class for DIY
Few other combinations have done that for me in the past. The last one previous was a setup I built for a close friend who wanted a tube amp to pair with his Manzanita OB speakers, in order to replace a P2P gainclone he built back in 2004 or so. I built him a basic Wlliamson with 6AV5GA tubes as outputs in pentode mode, some global feedback, and otherwise middle-of-the-road (but quality, of course) parts to fit his budget. Russian surplus 6N8S(6SN7 equivalents) for the other tubes. Solid state rectifier, with Maida regulated screens. Edcor iron. After testing it out and setting it up in his living room, I couldn't believe how absolutely fantastic they were, well rounded in every aspect, clean, tight bass, spectacular transient response, and beautifully flat response. You didn't for one second think this was a tube amplifier. Full power output was around 1kHz, 40W at .2%THD (although you could crank it to ~50W for 2%THD) and it stayed under .02%THD until at 18~20W or so. I didn't want to leave it with him when I left
Many different ways to do things. Which of the two above setups would I choose? I think it would be a tough choice, even if I was offered each for free. One measures better, and looks better on paper, one is simpler and "olde schoole" for what it is, but both did what thy did very well.
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No anger was intended; perhaps the idea remains the same but the perception of anger disappears if we make a small edit
I think it means: different individuals are going to like what they damn well like. And does there exist any Final Authority to tell them they are wrong, they don't like that? Worse yet, they shouldn't like that?
That is a good point.
And:
...could be perceived in a way that some would consider derogatory, to what end?
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