Tube Amps!

[E-Stat]

If the latter (a music lover), there is no real reason for tubes in this day & age. Better to go with at fine quality SS amp.

Funny, I have the exact opposite reaction. While tubes can be expensive and cranky, I find them worth the hassle for what I find to be a superior rendering of unamplified music and voice.

rw

[Feanor]

Funny, I have the exact opposite reaction. While tubes can be expensive and cranky, I find them worth the hassle for what I find to be a superior rendering of unamplified music and voice.

rw

My point is only an hardcore audiophile is likely to care about the difference between as good SS amp and a comparably priced tube machine. So why not avoid the hassle? You feel its worthwhile; you are an audiophile: OK

[E-Stat]

My point is only an hardcore audiophile is likely to care about the difference between as good SS amp and a comparably priced tube machine.

Perhaps you'd think differently if you had more exposure to tubes.

What I responded to is your suggestion that musiclovers and audiophiles are mutually exclusive groups. I've been on vacation for the past ten days and listened to my Sony Walkman CD player virtually every day to get my music fix.

rw

[RGA]

JoeE

I run the ASL MG head -- it's the quietest amplifier I've ever owned -- so for that matter is my Oto. In fact when my house had some kind fo cable grounding problem my SS amps were the ones humming along and the ASL was unhampered. The ASL MG head is so quiet in fact that I could run it as a preamplifier using a 1/4 oin to rca adapter ($15.00 cable) to my Arcam Delta 290 (used as power amp). You'd be impressed. The only let down is that it doesn;t have tremedous bass capability but ASL has upgraded the unit to provide an OTL switch and so it gives more bass but at the cost of midrange purity from what I've read.

The problem with tube versus solid state arguments is that when discussing technical merrits of tube amplifiers they're simply going to lose. If you read the review in the latest issue of Hi-fi News Martin Colloms reviews the $29,000.00GBP Audio Note Ongaku (UK) -- the thing measures from the stone age - is incredibly fussy to the speaker (read match it to an Audio Note or other 95db real flat impedence or don't bother) and nor is it free from hums and other anomolies. Yet he notes

"It(Ongaku) addresses our instinctive love for harmony and spatiality, for vitality and musical artistry. It provides a tantalising glimpse as to how good reproduced sound really can be. Achieving this in practice will require a compatible temperment, some tolerance for hopefully minor flaws, consonant programme, a compatible system, and care with location and use. The remarkable sound quality commands admiration and respect.../...Verdict -- With such limited power outpu, this amplifier needs to be properly matched with sensitve speakers. But in the right system, and certain kinds of music, is is surely a contender for the title of world's best."

Looking purely at the measurement's it's nothing special(in some cases not even particularly good) -- but then again I owned a Pioneer Elite receiver that measured brilliant ala krell and sounded awful. This is why I'm not an uber fan of the measurements currently being done -- if you take JA of Stereophile if a speaker measures great or it measure weak -- the long term listening sessions don;t favour either measured result. The wonky measured De Capo is wonderful sounding and planty of flatter ones don't sound even remotely good to me -- Stereophile likes both. You have Magie and John Marks doesn't like them.

The moral is that few agree which is why there is so vast an array of design.

If you get more musical enjoyment out of whatever it is you're choosing to go with then it doesn't matter if it uses tubes or not.

[JoeE SP9]

JoeE

I run the ASL MG head -- it's the quietest amplifier I've ever owned -- so for that matter is my Oto. In fact when my house had some kind fo cable grounding problem my SS amps were the ones humming along and the ASL was unhampered. The ASL MG head is so quiet in fact that I could run it as a preamplifier using a 1/4 oin to rca adapter ($15.00 cable) to my Arcam Delta 290 (used as power amp). You'd be impressed. The only let down is that it doesn;t have tremedous bass capability but ASL has upgraded the unit to provide an OTL switch and so it gives more bass but at the cost of midrange purity from what I've read.

The problem with tube versus solid state arguments is that when discussing technical merrits of tube amplifiers they're simply going to lose. If you read the review in the latest issue of Hi-fi News Martin Colloms reviews the $29,000.00GBP Audio Note Ongaku (UK) -- the thing measures from the stone age - is incredibly fussy to the speaker (read match it to an Audio Note or other 95db real flat impedence or don't bother) and nor is it free from hums and other anomolies. Yet he notes

"It(Ongaku) addresses our instinctive love for harmony and spatiality, for vitality and musical artistry. It provides a tantalising glimpse as to how good reproduced sound really can be. Achieving this in practice will require a compatible temperment, some tolerance for hopefully minor flaws, consonant programme, a compatible system, and care with location and use. The remarkable sound quality commands admiration and respect.../...Verdict -- With such limited power outpu, this amplifier needs to be properly matched with sensitve speakers. But in the right system, and certain kinds of music, is is surely a contender for the title of world's best."

Looking purely at the measurement's it's nothing special(in some cases not even particularly good) -- but then again I owned a Pioneer Elite receiver that measured brilliant ala krell and sounded awful. This is why I'm not an uber fan of the measurements currently being done -- if you take JA of Stereophile if a speaker measures great or it measure weak -- the long term listening sessions don;t favour either measured result. The wonky measured De Capo is wonderful sounding and planty of flatter ones don't sound even remotely good to me -- Stereophile likes both. You have Magie and John Marks doesn't like them.

The moral is that few agree which is why there is so vast an array of design.

If you get more musical enjoyment out of whatever it is you're choosing to go with then it doesn't matter if it uses tubes or not.

I am in total agreement with you on this. That's why my motto is "The Ears Decide"