Tube Fan

It is frustrating that rooms won't play your discs - if you go again try again. The Lotus room is close to half a million dollars. That I suspect would be a serious system. I have heard the Technical Brain amplifiers with magico and the sound was outstanding. I think the Lotus room would be seriously good.

I think we all need to not let the preference get in the way - I was very impressed with a lot of systems at CES that were not tube based. I decided to go back and look.

Take the AudioFederation - they sell uber accurate speakers in the $300,000 Marten Supreme's top of the line Sound Labs (which some will argue are also accurate) and they note that Audio Note speakers are not "accurate" in the same terms.

Just as Tubes and SET are not accurate in the same terms - let's just accept the fact that they clearly are NOT the same sounding and present material differently and in terms of measurements less accurate. Though it is interesting that they can still offer high IMO higher resolution.

There is a "kind of" control and ability to hit hard that a big SS system with geared for SS speaker systems have that a SET system doesn't possess.

I think though that Sir T was pretty fair in his assessment and I bet despite the bass issues in the room he was surprised that adding SET, and a Zero times no error checking, no digitial or analog filters would produce a rather clear presentation and that when looking at the technology of the system it does a terrific job of conveying the even. Even if it is not accurate in the sense of a YG Acoustics kind of way.

What I find interesting is that most people hear this the same way - it's when we then associate a perception to it "our brain" which is the ultimate filter. I took numerous psychology courses and the brain hemispheres work differently. The simplistic one is that one hemisphere controls logic mathematics, reasoning while the other is responsible for music, art, creativity.

I hear high impact slam, grip, tight, impact the same as anyone else but the part of the brain that responds is different just as it is different in me hating rap music but likeing Beethoven another person will react oppositely even though they are hearing the exact same piece of music. Music that may draw you to tears may bore another person to death.

Tubes have a second order harmonic distortion and Single Ended topology have a certain something there that for those that respond to that then really there is nothing else.

Take the big Boulder/Focal or YG Acoustics or the big hard hitting system. I can never get away from the word Hard. They have a brute force kind of sound to everything and it sounds clear enough it is more "accurate" in the established sense. The AN E system with the warts in and the softer clipping and the radiated bass pattern instead of the high excursion impact vairiety will seem softer and comparatively polite.

On the other hand for my ear the systems like the Focal/YG Acoustics can do better at shows and shorter auditions with the "stunt or show off discs" that reveal the high impact slam and spectacle material. The better tube systems sound more inviting and perhaps play to people who are controlled more by the creative artisitc hemisphere of the brain.

I suspect if one were to do a study that engineers, and math majors would gravitate more to a YG acoustics big slam system then Ennglish majors artisits creative writers where I suspect many of whom are more controlled by the creative hemisphere.

I never really thought about this much until now and it would be an interesting research study.