Funny that Sean mentions tube gear with a solid state heart. I auditioned several tube preamps ranging from $2000 to $10,000 in my system. The lesser priced tube amps were clearly editing the music and truncating the bass. By the time I got to the $10,000 preamp, the bass was back and the mids and highs sounded much like my Pass designed solid state preamp. And my solid state preamp was $9,600 less!!!!!!
I'm going back to tubes... a question for y'all
It's been years and years, but I remember the sound my old Stromburg Carlson used to put out. Also grandmas old Packard Bell. My vintage Marantz had 'the sound' also.
For some reason I just can't get it (that sound) out of my head, and here was the kicker: A week ago a buddy brought over a forty+ year old Harmon Kardon mono reciever for me to offload on e-bay. I plugged it in with it hooked up to one of the speakers, let it warm up, found a station and THERE was That Sound! I didn't say anything... my buddy looked at me and said "that sounds better than your (other stuff). The sad thing is... I was thinking the exact same thing.
Oh, the question... how many of you chased through SS stuff only to wind up back at tubes (sometimes many) years later.
I ordered up an amp from Paul at 2B audio. I'll let you know how it goes...
For some reason I just can't get it (that sound) out of my head, and here was the kicker: A week ago a buddy brought over a forty+ year old Harmon Kardon mono reciever for me to offload on e-bay. I plugged it in with it hooked up to one of the speakers, let it warm up, found a station and THERE was That Sound! I didn't say anything... my buddy looked at me and said "that sounds better than your (other stuff). The sad thing is... I was thinking the exact same thing.
Oh, the question... how many of you chased through SS stuff only to wind up back at tubes (sometimes many) years later.
I ordered up an amp from Paul at 2B audio. I'll let you know how it goes...