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do tube amps have weak midbass?

i have been trying to figure out why the bass from my vk-75 sounds great on some recordings but almost disappears on others. part of the problem (i think) is a sucky AC current in my building. however, i started paying more attention to when and where the bass sucks and it seems to be primarily in midbass. the bass extention is good, such that an acoustic bass can sound very natural, but the midbass slam (?) from kickdrums and certain synth bass lines is missing.

i never noticed this "problem" with any of the SS amps i tried. is this normal for the vk-75 and/or tube amps in general? what can be done to improve it? do cables make a difference? note that i still prefer the tube sound overall...i just want to optimize my setup.

thanks.
s2k_dude

Showing 1 response by marakanetz

marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
My suggestion is to experiment with different speaker cables first, which can make a huge difference in tube amps.
Consult with the specialist who can recommend you a good match. Tube amps do not drow high current into the speaker wires and length does matter.

Connections in this case might play a vast part and have to be checked and cleaned... Oxided connection has an extra mutual capacity and inductance. You might also try to re-terminate with better connectors or replace with better binding posts.

Another way to explain dissipation of mid-bass is transformer influence: in the tube amps it may induce parasite currents of opposite phase and relatively large amplitude (worst case will be in-phase). This case cannot be possible for VK-75 that I consider the to be one of the best engineered tube amps on the market.
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