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...
128x128rwbadley

Showing 1 response by the_smokester

Rwbadley,
I'm with you. After college I lost track of my great tube system and had modest solid state systems for many years. Also discovered "perfect sound forever" and lost interest in listening for lack of time and money.

In the last couple of years I have acquired another system...this time it's pretty high end with tubes and vinyl all over the place. I spent a lot of time auditioning systems and my experience--clearly not as exhaustive as many on this site--is that tube amps are just more musical (at least at the price I can afford).

My system is well-behaved. Sure, I have to mess with biases and replace tubes occasionally but nothing catastrophic.

Best wishes,