What SS do you think comes closest to tubes?
- Thread starter fiddlefye
- Start date
charles 1973
Super Member
Which SS amps sound like Tubes? Well...
It depends on what qualities of a tube amp you are looking for. If its that warm sound (with respect to a slightly elevated mid range) we can voice a SS preamp or power amp to do that. If you want the low damping factor effects of a tube power amp, That is a different matter. Some speakers may sound noticably better with low damping factors, With most speakers however it's not an issue. If you want the 3-D effect of a single ended tube amp, We can do the same thing with a single ended SS preamp or power amp, But I think few do.
Also SS power amps maintain a very flat frequency response over a wide impedance, Not so with tube power amps, that's why the speakers impedance should be matched with the proper transformer tap. So many speakers will sound different with tube amps and SS, irregardless of how close everything else is. There may be exceptions. But generally these factors may help explain why tube amps are still in demand.
If the audio section of a source is tubed, or a tube/SS hybrid, they can produce the effects a tube preamp produces as well, depending on their design.
It depends on what qualities of a tube amp you are looking for. If its that warm sound (with respect to a slightly elevated mid range) we can voice a SS preamp or power amp to do that. If you want the low damping factor effects of a tube power amp, That is a different matter. Some speakers may sound noticably better with low damping factors, With most speakers however it's not an issue. If you want the 3-D effect of a single ended tube amp, We can do the same thing with a single ended SS preamp or power amp, But I think few do.
Also SS power amps maintain a very flat frequency response over a wide impedance, Not so with tube power amps, that's why the speakers impedance should be matched with the proper transformer tap. So many speakers will sound different with tube amps and SS, irregardless of how close everything else is. There may be exceptions. But generally these factors may help explain why tube amps are still in demand.
If the audio section of a source is tubed, or a tube/SS hybrid, they can produce the effects a tube preamp produces as well, depending on their design.
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SoCal Sam
Lunatic Member
I thought my pair of ex-MC275V's sounded like solid state.
mars_volta
Super Member
B.K. Butler. 
mfrench
Addicted Member
Early David Hafler ss gear was well regarded back in the day. Given his immense expertise in tube amplifiers, designing and building t-formers for tubes, he should have been able to voice a decent SS amp.
I have a small D.Hafler 120w amp/D.H. pre that I bought new in the early 80's, and I still like it. I have them paired with some Bozak B302a's, and they play nicely together.
Plinius is another good SS name that gets that "tube-like" nod from the afficiandos.
I have a small D.Hafler 120w amp/D.H. pre that I bought new in the early 80's, and I still like it. I have them paired with some Bozak B302a's, and they play nicely together.
Plinius is another good SS name that gets that "tube-like" nod from the afficiandos.
I am in effect running a tube/SS hybrid situation at the moment except in two boxes rather than one. I tried running a couple of Class A SS amps as well as the Quads (405, 502f and 606) and while they were all very good they kinda missed the point. It isn't fat mid-range I'm looking for, either. My tube set-up is balanced like a good SS would be in that sense. It really comes down to handling of the harmonics resulting from the mid-to-upper treble frequencies that is the kicker. That is where the MC-250 somehow manages to get where I want to be with my sources, pre and speakers. It is a subtle thing, but for my ears an important one.
JBLnut come on you know damn well what I mean. The source as in what the amps see's prior to amplification. Anything differences from what the line source going into the amp to what comes out as output of the amp, is distortion, of one type or another.
davidro
Lunatic Member
I know the story. My point was that sort of tests also 'proved' all SS amps sound the same. Which is fair enough.
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davidro
Lunatic Member
whoaru99
Epic Member
Really, must we?
Show me a full context post or article when someone, anyone, unconditionally says all SS amps sound the same. I wouldn't spend much time looking though because that only exists as a strawman.
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afewbricks
Active Member
I have a 200 its a smooth amp. But it can be too smooth and laid back for me at times the upper frequencies sound restrained, other times just right it sounds wonderful.
One reason is their transfer curves are similar as observed by Nelson Pass.
MOSFETs and JFETs are like pentode tubes while VFETs or SITs are like triodes.
I would vote for Nelson's many children in the Pass Labs and First Watt families along with that of Ayre and others than don't rely on the use of high levels of NFB to achieve linearity. The use of transformer coupling that McIntosh uses for its SS amps does give it a characteristically smooth sound, but still has a traditional SS character to these ears (they love NFB). My favorite of their line is the 2301 which I heard in an exceptionally nice system.
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whoaru99
Epic Member
"All SS amps sound the same." is an unconditional statement.
I've never seen that said. It's always been some version that includes conditions unless someone is trying to set up a strawman.
Nobody's saying all amps sound the same, just that you can't hear the difference between them
I've read this here which isn't terribly far away.
"I have found many amps that do an effectively perfect job amplifying a signal above their noise floor and below their clipping limit. In my listening rooms I have used a Dynaco 410, a Crown Microtech, an Aragon 4004, a Krell KST-100 and various pro sound amps, essentially interchangeably."
Effectively *perfect* job? Sheesh!