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I Recently Became An Audiophile.

Yeeterkeeter said:
This might be an unanswerable question, but do certain music mediums sound better through a tube amp vs. a regular amp? I'm guessing that mediums like CD's or tape won't have any difference, but will vinyl sound better?
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For me, the "medium" or "source" is not a factor in my choice of amplification but the type of music is a factor.

If I had only one option, I would choose solid state because the right amp with the right speakers will do anything a tube amp can do, and, for some types of music, sound even better than a tube amplifier.

If I use one of my tube amps, I will only listen to Jazz thru it. If I'm listening to 70's, 80's, 90's rock music (classic rock, new wave, metal, grunge) I prefer a nice solid state amplifier.
 
malden said:
For me, the "medium" or "source" is not a factor in my choice of amplification but the type of music is a factor.

If I had only one option, I would choose solid state because the right amp with the right speakers will do anything a tube amp can do, and, for some types of music, sound even better than a tube amplifier.

If I use one of my tube amps, I will only listen to Jazz thru it. If I'm listening to 70's, 80's, 90's rock music (classic rock, new wave, metal, grunge) I prefer a nice solid state amplifier.
Click to expand...
So acoustic music sounds better through tube audio, and electric stuff is better through solid state. Interesting, I will have to see if I experience those same types of effects
 
maxhifi said:
I have a pair of 1950s RCA Theater amplifiers, and they have oil filled capacitors. At one point one of them did leak and leave a mess inside my audio rack. I replaced it with an HVAC style motor start capacitor, simply because it was the closest thing I could find locally.
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That sounds like it was a nightmare to clean up.
 
Yeeterkeeter said:
So acoustic music sounds better through tube audio, and electric stuff is better through solid state. Interesting, I will have to see if I experience those same types of effects
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That depends. In many cases the simpler the signal path, the better. Basic tube amps tend toward simple, few simpler than the common console tube amps that can be a revelatory experience after refurbishment and repurposing.
 
Pio1980 said:
That depends. In many cases the simpler the signal path, the better. Basic tube amps tend toward simple, few simpler than the common console tube amps that can be a revelatory experience after refurbishment and repurposing.
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Ah, i got it. That makes sense, I guess.
 
Yeeterkeeter said:
So acoustic music sounds better through tube audio, and electric stuff is better through solid state. Interesting, I will have to see if I experience those same types of effects
Click to expand...
Acoustic music sounds just as good when played thru solid state equipment. Most types of rock music, 1970's and beyond, do not sound as good when played through my tube amps. The exception would be 1950's and early 60's rock with small bands and relatively simple compositions.

The only reason I have and use tube amplifiers is that I like their glow
 
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malden said:
For me, the "medium" or "source" is not a factor in my choice of amplification but the type of music is a factor.

If I had only one option, I would choose solid state because the right amp with the right speakers will do anything a tube amp can do, and, for some types of music, sound even better than a tube amplifier.

If I use one of my tube amps, I will only listen to Jazz thru it. If I'm listening to 70's, 80's, 90's rock music (classic rock, new wave, metal, grunge) I prefer a nice solid state amplifier.
Click to expand...

See and I think tubes suit rock and even metal extremely well, but with the qualification that it's a >70W amp into >90dB/W speakers. Big amps like that get into real money these days, but I love how they sound. Push pull parallel KT88s can rock the house.

Lower powered tubes into less efficient speakers really are better for smaller scale music.

Yeeterkeeter said:
That sounds like it was a nightmare to clean up.
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Just a paper towel straight to the garbage. Luckily the rack wasn't porous. It was just funny to me to have an amp leak oil!
 
maxhifi said:
See and I think tubes suit rock and even metal extremely well, but with the qualification that it's a >70W amp into >90dB/W speakers. Big amps like that get into real money these days, but I love how they sound. Push pull parallel KT88s can rock the house.
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How many watts can an ST-35 output? I'm guessing its not much but I just wanted to check, since I plan on buying one
 
Yeeterkeeter said:
Ah, got it, so there's no chance of me powering anything larger than bookshelf speakers with that.
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I power a pair of Klipsch Fortes with a 15wpc tube amp and in a little over a week, I’ll be running the same amp with LaScalas. As long as you have high sensitivity speakers, an ST30 will drive them just fine. I don’t use more than a Watt for regular listening at 75-80 dB.
 
Yeeterkeeter said:
Ah, got it, so there's no chance of me powering anything larger than bookshelf speakers with that.
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It depends on the sensitivity of the loudspeakers which is stated in terms of x dB @ 1m @ 1 watt input. There are bookshelf speakers that require substantially more than 17 w for satisfactory dynamic range at given average listing level. Overdriving an amplifier can easily result in speaker damage.
 
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