Opening a can of worms again: Why Tubes sound better

[manek]

My experience has been the polar opposite. Tube amps ended my upgraditis.

Sure mine too. Its just that i like to put a different set of tubes once a year and roll them year on year. One year one set. The next year the next set. And then come back to the first set.

 

[mbhangui]

Sure mine too. Its just that i like to put a different set of tubes once a year and roll them year on year. One year one set. The next year the next set. And then come back to the first set.

I do amp rolling. For few days I may listen to my tube amp and then go back to my Class D amp when I start missing the HF clarity. Today happens to be listening to tubes with Jim Reeves and woody taste of Jack Daniels. This controversy over valve, class A class B, avr vs separates, mp3 vs flac vs DSD is much ado over nothing. You just need to stop thinking about the gear and start listening.

 

[vkalia]

You just need to stop thinking about the gear and start listening.

^^^ This.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

I do not know the FM with sensitive speakers you refer to, nor do I know you. What I say is not any reflection what so ever on either of you, or others in audio.

I DO have one important comment to make. The weakest link in the playback chain is the amplification.

Almost ALL amps do NOT come close to cutting the mustard to make ME happy with what I hear. It is a universal / world-wide audio amplifier problem we face.

Ask what amp types do YOU prefer, from all you have heard?? What do you like the best , a bit of............cancer, polio, a severe cold, congestion-upper tract? Measles, mumps, general sluggishness??? That is about what we have to choose from.

Jeff

There is a particular company in Australia sir, called Deqx. They claim that the highest distortion in a audio chain occurs during the mechanical conversion of the audio signal from say a electric output from a amp converting to mechanical energy at the transducer in a driver in a speaker. And I think I will go with that. I've tried a lot of amps, and never found them to be a bottle neck, as long as the power / current was sufficient. Though of course their presentation was different, amd what I considered poison, could be the next guys nectar. So I still feel, the biggest difference that one can get in their sound, is by upgrading their speakers, and not just amplification. And there is a other stream of thought that Linn advocates, which is source first. What is lost at the source , can never be recovered.

 

[drlowmu]

There is a particular company in Australia sir, called Deqx. They claim that the highest distortion in a audio chain occurs during the mechanical conversion of the audio signal from say a electric output from a amp converting to mechanical energy at the transducer in a driver in a speaker. And I think I will go with that. I've tried a lot of amps, and never found them to be a bottle neck, as long as the power / current was sufficient. Though of course their presentation was different, amd what I considered poison, could be the next guys nectar. So I still feel, the biggest difference that one can get in their sound, is by upgrading their speakers, and not just amplification. And there is a other stream of thought that Linn advocates, which is source first. What is lost at the source , can never be recovered.

We all have different backgrounds and experience levels. I do not care at all about distortion and Deqx.

I judge equipment by how well it plays back musical instruments. Does it sound like live, unamplified music playback.? That is my judgement criteria.

You found " few amps to be bottle necks ", of course. I since 1968 find just the opposite !!! Because, in my opinion, almost all amps available to people in our hobby are average at best, and 99.9999 percent of audio amps are deficient VS. their capability to play back music so it sounds truly real, ........ and not reproduced. The chance of you ( and Deqx ) experiencing or hearing what I seek are maybe one in ten million, maybe more.

For me, in 1968, after Graduate School, age 24, I bought my first Hi Fi system. I did not read any reviews. I went to Hi Fi stores on Wilshire Blvd. in LA and Santa Monica , CA., and selected equipment based solely on what I heard. My first speaker purchase was 1968 Tannoy 15 inch Monitor Gold speakers, in factory Tannoy GRF enclosures.

When I got them home, I used two amps, a DYNA ST-70 and a McIntosh solid state 2505 . Neither of them remotely satisfied me, they sounded much different. My conclusion then, as now, is / was, that amps were the real problem area, because the music instrument playback sounded so different ....when playing back material on my same exact Tannoy Speakers.

Early on, I sought a singular goal, an amplifier - speaker pairing that can give me a realistic sound on demand, in my apartment.

Amazingly, it was not until this precise past week, September 2022, 54 years later, have I finally realized I had arrived. My goal was very simple. I wanted to own the world's very best sounding, ( most like live musical instruments playing ), amplifier, for efficient speakers.. Yep. The best music playback " I " personally have ever heard in my life - anywhere in this entire, and I do mean ENTIRE world. Mind you, I have not heard everyone's amp. Nor will I.


This week I believe and feel I own an amp that will outplay all other amps that exist, for high efficiency speakers, past and present, world-wide. I am now finally satisfied. People are welcome to hear it. It is instantly audible.

I appreciated you taking time to comment.

Jeff




Left above : Shilchar of India R-Core 320 VA. main Power Transformer.






Midway above , 2 Softone RW-20 R-Core Output Transformers, covers off .

New Design, SE 6005 Directly Coupled Audio Amplifier

This is a current design and build project, a DIY hobby of mine for many years. It uses a 6005 FINALS tube, which has a 10 Watt (correction - 12 Watt) plate dissipation, and was introduced in the 1950s. Used in car radios and TVs as the FINAL stage, in the USA and in Russia ( an equivalent )...

www.hifivision.com

I am pretty sure this above is the most dynamic playing audio amplifier in audio's entire history !!!

 

[Subbu68]

I do amp rolling. For few days I may listen to my tube amp and then go back to my Class D amp when I start missing the HF clarity. Today happens to be listening to tubes with Jim Reeves and woody taste of Jack Daniels. This controversy over valve, class A class B, avr vs separates, mp3 vs flac vs DSD is much ado over nothing. You just need to stop thinking about the gear and start listening.

+ 1

which is source first. What is lost at the source , can never be recovered.

Source - the musicians and singers themselves. IMO there is only a lossy chain after that .

Only if someone could hear them in real time without any mics, mixers, amps, speakers and REMEMBER ALL THAT , then compare what is reproduced in your room.

 

[drlowmu]

+ 1


Source - the musicians and singers themselves. IMO there is only a lossy chain after that .

Only if someone could hear them in real time without any mics, mixers, amps, speakers and REMEMBER ALL THAT , then compare what is reproduced in your room.

Subbu68,

Fine.

The source ......... is a given.

It is the "lossy chain" you describe ....... which I work upon.

It takes clear understanding as to what is required. I seek to have the struck piano note sound real, happening in my room, and not sounding reproduced by anyone's audio system. Same for the drum solo, a sense of it not being replayed, but actually originating there, in real time - in my room. Oboe, violin, harp, etc.

Fully preserving live music's instantaneous / peak dynamic contrasting........ is mostly ............ where I reside.

This is a tall order to fulfill.

Jeff

 

[manek]

I do amp rolling. For few days I may listen to my tube amp and then go back to my Class D amp when I start missing the HF clarity. Today happens to be listening to tubes with Jim Reeves and woody taste of Jack Daniels. This controversy over valve, class A class B, avr vs separates, mp3 vs flac vs DSD is much ado over nothing. You just need to stop thinking about the gear and start listening.

Eggjhaklee

Figure this out folks ……

 

[Dr.Gary]

We all have different backgrounds and experience levels. I do not care at all about distortion and Deqx.

I judge equipment by how well it plays back musical instruments. Does it sound like live, unamplified music playback.? That is my judgement criteria.

You found " few amps to be bottle necks ", of course. I since 1968 find just the opposite !!! Because, in my opinion, almost all amps available to people in our hobby are average at best, and 99.9999 percent of audio amps are deficient VS. their capability to play back music so it sounds truly real, ........ and not reproduced. The chance of you ( and Deqx ) experiencing or hearing what I seek are maybe one in ten million, maybe more.

For me, in 1968, after Graduate School, age 24, I bought my first Hi Fi system. I did not read any reviews. I went to Hi Fi stores on Wilshire Blvd. in LA and Santa Monica , CA., and selected equipment based solely on what I heard. My first speaker purchase was 1968 Tannoy 15 inch Monitor Gold speakers, in factory Tannoy GRF enclosures.

When I got them home, I used two amps, a DYNA ST-70 and a McIntosh solid state 2505 . Neither of them remotely satisfied me, they sounded much different. My conclusion then, as now, is / was, that amps were the real problem area, because the music instrument playback sounded so different ....when playing back material on my same exact Tannoy Speakers.

Early on, I sought a singular goal, an amplifier - speaker pairing that can give me a realistic sound on demand, in my apartment.

Amazingly, it was not until this precise past week, September 2022, 54 years later, have I finally realized I had arrived. My goal was very simple. I wanted to own the world's very best sounding, ( most like live musical instruments playing ), amplifier, for efficient speakers.. Yep. The best music playback " I " personally have ever heard in my life - anywhere in this entire, and I do mean ENTIRE world. Mind you, I have not heard everyone's amp. Nor will I.


This week I believe and feel I own an amp that will outplay all other amps that exist, for high efficiency speakers, past and present, world-wide. I am now finally satisfied. People are welcome to hear it. It is instantly audible.

I appreciated you taking time to comment.

Jeff


View attachment 72078

Left above : Shilchar of India R-Core 320 VA. main Power Transformer.




View attachment 72079

Midway above , 2 Softone RW-20 R-Core Output Transformers, covers off .

New Design, SE 6005 Directly Coupled Audio Amplifier

This is a current design and build project, a DIY hobby of mine for many years. It uses a 6005 FINALS tube, which has a 10 Watt (correction - 12 Watt) plate dissipation, and was introduced in the 1950s. Used in car radios and TVs as the FINAL stage, in the USA and in Russia ( an equivalent )...

www.hifivision.com

I am pretty sure this above is the most dynamic playing audio amplifier in audio's entire history !!!

You proclaimed "I am pretty sure this above is the most dynamic playing audio amplifier in audio's entire history !!!"
Don't be so sure. There are many amplifiers that currently exist about which you know nothing. Also, audio's history is a work in progress and your contribujtion to it is yet to have been either written or or acknowledged.

You have no idea about what others