Tube Vs. Solid State

A very very valid way to get a lot of the advantages of BOTH technologies is to get a superb tube preamp and feed into very high quality solid state amplification. I've seen this kind of sound to work for me and have a lot of Plankton as well

 

... or maybe the worst of both, if you don't get the right synergy.

 

Absolutely! I figured that would be obvious, but thanks for stating it clearly.

 

I was a bit oblivious to this until I recently got the Apex Sangaku. Everyone I've played it for, from those who love a lush tubey sound to those who love it dynamic and clear, have loved it. Really one of those "best of both worlds" situations. I'll be testing this more going forward with my Hegel H20 power amp.

 

That is pretty much where I have settled. My Cavalli LG is a hybrid amp with tubes in the pre. I use the entire amp with my HD-650's or use it as a pre with a SS "speaker" power amp for my HE-6's. May not be the best rig in the world, but I am dim enough to be completely satisfied with it. It also allows a reasonable tube budget once you get through rolling tubes and settle on something (because there are no power tubes to wear out - just a couple of stacked triodes).

 

https://tavishdesign.com/products/minotaur

 

Tube amplifiers, even at the crappy end have more tonal gamut.
Solid state amplifiers are ''washed away'' sounding. Music in RL doesn't sound that way. Just as Marv said, the ss things do sins of omission.
This is what keeps me away of even the best solid state stuff.

 

Is there is any technical reason / explanation for tubes sounding "better" ? Solid state -usually- measures better at least with THD %.

 

THD and frequency response are not all there is in the universe.

On top of my head...
1.Solid state usually has compression issues or simply lacking dynamics
2. Tubes that use little or no feedback might have less high order harmonics, maybe less IMD
3. Electrons in dense medium like silicon, germanium whatewa have various binding mechanisms that vacuum doesn't have

 

Those measurements are also usually done with resistors, not real speakers loads. Solid state amps have high dampening which could lead to overdamping. Are argument can be made for higher output impedance which tube amps have.

 

Tubes vs SS...feels like I'm on a guitar forum again

For what it's worth, a Mesa Boogie sounds way better than a Marshall

 

As a wise man I know says... "Think tubes have high distortion? The triode is more linear than the transistor."

 

If only there was a good tube amp for PM-3. For me it's only closed backs in the office or speakers at home.

 

This one is also good: http://www.dancheever.com/main/cheever_thesis_final.pdf

 

So something like the Crack pre-amping into the Jotunheim would be ultimate funtimes with a 650? I know the Crack doesn't have a preamp, but it's the first example of a tube amp that came to mind.

 

From Psalms share this could be very interesting measurement:
''Crowhearst is first to propose that the
very high orders of harmonics due to the proliferation of high levels and multiple loops of
feedback create a signal correlated modulating noise floor. ''

Soekris dac was plagued with such issue at the beginning, it was the single most important 'fix' I made to mine to get rid of it.
No I wonder about some solid state amps.

 

On the Bottlehead forum they said it would work fine as a preamp. In fact it uses a switching jack so an easy mod would be to add extra RCA jacks as a preamp out.

 

Hmm, I lack the knowledge of how to do that, but I guess I may as well start reading up on it now that I have a few weeks between classes. Thanks!

 

You can just use a TRS to RCA jack cable in the meantime.