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What SS do you think comes closest to tubes?

JimPA said:
A very wise man told me the difference one may hear with amps is due to the crossover and enclosure loading of the drivers.
If the impedance of the speaker has peaks and dips due to the crossover and driver enclosure loading it does makes sense that it will effect the amp.
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Definitely a consideration, as is the fact that the amp can "hear" the room thru the feedback loop as a time delayed signal and responds to it, depending on the degree of feedback.


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davidro said:
Well they eat up shitload of electricity, warm up a hot room in summer, not much of a heater in winter, finicky with handling, sometimes require regular biasing, demand new tubes every once a while, blow some tubes, can't be left turned on when you're out or sleeping, hazardous to kids/pets, require the warm-up time etc.


Fvck, why do I still like tubes??? :puke:
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Agreed; except for your last statement. You also forgot to mention one important part. They do a great job at draining your wallet for that "pleasing distortion":yes:.
 
motorstereo said:
Agreed; except for your last statement. You also forgot to mention one important part. They do a great job at draining your wallet for that "pleasing distortion":yes:.
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Ah nice jab. I have no problem with the standard term.
But in my book it's called realism :yes:
 
SoCal Sam said:
Then make your proclamation in the FIRST PERSON as in "To my ears, all solid state amps sound the same."
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I didn't proclaim that, I asked a rhetorical question based on the proclamations of others.

Maybe I should have worded it differently:

"If one can't hear the difference, doesn't it follow that they sound the same?"

Isn't "same" the "lack of difference"?

FWIW, I once thought all amps sounded the same. Then I bought my second amp. But I naively just hooked it up to the rest of my gear and used it, not knowing that I should level match it to the previous amp and perform a series of double blind tests to demonstrate to myself that it actually didn't sound different (note that I didn't say "sounded the same", but "didn't sound different"). I just jumped headlong into real-world listening :nono: Like anybody buys an amp for that.
 
whoaru99 said:
I think the challenge is part of it. SS amps are boring in that regard. They just sorta sit there and do their thing.
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Sort of the same motivation that causes some of us to live with vintage sports cars and/or gorgeous but super-high-maintenance girlfriends.

Speaking personally, the big difference is that at this point I'm still willing to put up with vacuum tubes and vinyl.

:scratch2:
 
fiddlefye said:
My original premise had to do with what amps folks might use to stand in for their tube units when the weather gets warmer (definitely not this evening).
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I'm a tube lover/user. I also use a Pass XA.5 class A ss in rotation but it gets a little hot to.

The sleeper is a Bedini 45/45. It's class A ss also but it gives off very little heat. I truly like the sound of it. I would use it all summer long. It was close enough to tubes for my enjoyment.
 
writethis said:
Sort of the same motivation that causes some of us to live with vintage sports cars and/or gorgeous but super-high-maintenance girlfriends.

:scratch2:
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Dealing with both of those things and vinyl too and this explains why I can't be bothered with tubes.
And people wonder why I smoke like a tire fire.

Not all amps sound the same to me, generally the same but I
hear differences. The closest SS amps I've heard to tubes are old capacitor coupled designs. The reasons for this are probably some voicing to sound like tubes but also some quirks that come with the design. Who knows.
 
writethis said:
Sort of the same motivation that causes some of us to live with vintage sports cars and/or gorgeous but super-high-maintenance girlfriends.

Speaking personally, the big difference is that at this point I'm still willing to put up with vacuum tubes and vinyl.

:scratch2:
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Yeah but she's such a looker worth the costs :smoke:

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whoaru99 said:
That's a clear example of just what I said. If you read the editorial it portrays Hirsch as implying "all sounds the same". But if you read what Hirsch actually said, clearly it's a conditional opinion.
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This ...

“I do not believe that any amplifier that is reasonably good and operating as intended has any sound quality of its own, at least not in the sense that phono cartridges, speakers, and listening rooms have their distinctive sounds.”

is definitely a conditional statement. I read that to mean yes they do have differences, but not the vast differences among speakers and carts. To me that does not mean that all amps sound the same.
 
Another thing to consider is, yes they're not saying all amps sound the same. But aren't they saying the sonic difference between the amps is nowhere as big as a lot of people like to believe?
 
Jeffery said:
I didn't proclaim that, I asked a rhetorical question based on the proclamations of others.

Maybe I should have worded it differently:

"If one can't hear the difference, doesn't it follow that they sound the same?"

Isn't "same" the "lack of difference"?

FWIW, I once thought all amps sounded the same. Then I bought my second amp. But I naively just hooked it up to the rest of my gear and used it, not knowing that I should level match it to the previous amp and perform a series of double blind tests to demonstrate to myself that it actually didn't sound different (note that I didn't say "sounded the same", but "didn't sound different"). I just jumped headlong into real-world listening :nono: Like anybody buys an amp for that.
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I've owned and heard far too many amps and receivers. I'll give you that. True, two amps can sound the same but two is not a sufficient sample to proclaim all solid state amps sound the same. There is a difference...to my ears and also to most if not all the audio buddies in my area.
 
davidro said:
Another thing to consider is, yes they're not saying all amps sound the same. But aren't they saying the sonic difference between the amps is nowhere as big as a lot of people like to believe?
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Generalization based on your perception. Your statements should always be conditioned with this. To me and to the vast majority of members based on statements of sonic preference, there is a difference.
 
Yamaha B-2 (VFET) and Nakamichi PA-7A both have a warm musical sound that remind me of a tube amp.
 
SoCal Sam said:
Generalization based on your perception. Your statements should always be conditioned with this. To me and to the vast majority of members based on statements of sonic preference, there is a difference.
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Read my post before you reply :no:
 
Dr. Morbius said:
This ...

“I do not believe that any amplifier that is reasonably good and operating as intended has any sound quality of its own, at least not in the sense that phono cartridges, speakers, and listening rooms have their distinctive sounds.”

is definitely a conditional statement. I read that to mean yes they do have differences, but not the vast differences among speakers and carts. To me that does not mean that all amps sound the same.
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Some people have an amazingly difficult time understanding conditional statements.
 
Ken Boyd said:
Ok I have to call this one.

If either a tube amp or a SS amp has any other sound than that of the source, who wants it?

What does a tube amp sound like? :D
What does a SS amp sound like? :D
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Dittos!!

In the old days the goal was to remove all distortion and artifacts introduced by the electronics and the mechanical devices to get as close as possible to hearing the music and the work of the recording engineers. It cost a lot of money to get as close as possible to eliminating distortion and other extraneous noise to get as close to hearing the music as it was intended by the artist and the engineers.

We have advanced to the point today where people will spend incredible amounts of money because they like the noise their amplifier adds to the music more than the noise other guys amplifier adds to the music.

Progress!!

(Is that a flaming arrow I see coming at me?)
 
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