Tape Project Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: ironbut on December 22, 2009, 11:27:02 PM
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Well, leave it to Eric Jacobs (useridchallenged) to put together a nice article on what we tube lovers have been hearing all these years.
Eric doesn't dwell here too often but he and his archival/restoration company is a highly respected member of the the professional audio community and has always been more than gracious in answering questions and contributing to general knowledge about different media types (in other words, he's a nice guy).
His web site is a wealth of info about audio. While you're there, be sure and check out all the different topics in the drop downs (the calculators for bit rate/file size are great for you guys who are digitizing your lps).
For the newer members interested in Studers, the scans of the brochures are fantastic.
Oh yeah, tubes vs solid state. I'm sure this was spurred on by Eric's partnering with Scott Frankland in creating an archival reference phono stage.
Well, enough of me,.. here's the link;
http://www.theaudioarchive.com/TAA_Resources_Tubes_versus_Solid_State.htm
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It would be an interesting survey to see how many forum members have solid state electronics and how many have tube electronics.
I have solid state, for a few reasons. First, and possibly most important, I haven't found tube gear in my price range that can handle the microdynamics of large scale orchestral music correctly. I haven't looked extensively either, but I did do an extended AB comparison (and this means listening to the same material for extended periods of time - after a while the sonic signatures of a piece of gear become absolutely clear, but it has to be done for extended periods) of a $6K integrated tube amp from a well regarded manufacturer to solid state gear in the same price range. The tubes excelled in musical continuity of say, small combo jazz, and acoustic guitar, but failed to be fast enough for a Mahler symphony. A retailer I know said that you have to go up in the world to get this kind of performance from tubes, and demonstrated a $15K Air Tight system to me, which was amazing, and did handle it all.
I haven't looked into SETs either, simply because the speakers I tend to prefer (and this is the most personal choice in audio, I think) use more power than SETs provide.
Secondly, there is the hassle factor for tubes- I have always worried about getting replacements, you have to warm up your system, tubes denigrate over time, etc.
Of course, RTR has a big hassle factor, too! Anyway, I will be getting my first tube gear when I can put together the $$$ for mods to my Technics and a tape head amp.
Who knows, what day you might walk into my place and see tube gear everywhere as well.
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Well, leave it to Eric Jacobs (useridchallenged) to put together a nice article on what we tube lovers have been hearing all these years.
Eric doesn't dwell here too often but he and his archival/restoration company is a highly respected member of the the professional audio community and has always been more than gracious in answering questions and contributing to general knowledge about different media types (in other words, he's a nice guy).
His web site is a wealth of info about audio. While you're there, be sure and check out all the different topics in the drop downs (the calculators for bit rate/file size are great for you guys who are digitizing your lps).
For the newer members interested in Studers, the scans of the brochures are fantastic.
Oh yeah, tubes vs solid state. I'm sure this was spurred on by Eric's partnering with Scott Frankland in creating an archival reference phono stage.
Well, enough of me,.. here's the link;
http://www.theaudioarchive.com/TAA_Resources_Tubes_versus_Solid_State.htm
Would love to hear Scott's new phono section!
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AS you can see in my signature - I'm a tube SET person. I fell in love with the sound many years ago - well before I could afford a SET based system, and when SET's were extremely expensive (before Bottlehead and similar companies went into business). I found speakers that work well with SET's, not the other way around. My 2A3's put out about 3-5 watts max, plenty of power for my 103db efficient speakers. Larry
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Well I am in the tube section on this one!!! Was a SS guy for along time until I heard tubes and horns, there is no going back now!!!
Jay
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I have 2 solid state systems and 1 tube system. Even my solid state has some tube components.
Larry