2. amps-preamps
  3. 1031724377

Tubes Do It -- Transistors Don't.

I never thought transistor amps could hold a candle to tube amps. They just never seem to get the "wholeness of the sound of an instrument" quite right. SS doesn't allow an instrument (brass, especially) to "bloom" out in the air, forming a real body of an instrument. Rather, it sounds like a facsimile; a somewhat truncated, stripped version of the real thing. Kind of like taking 3D down to 2-1/2D.

I also hear differences in the actual space the instruments are playing in. With tubes, the space appears continuous, with each instrument occupying a believable part in that space. With SS, the space seems segmented, darker, and less continuous, with instruments somewhat disconnected from each other, almost as if they were panned in with a mixer. I won't claim this to be an accurate description, but I find it hard to describe these phenomena.

There is also the issue of interest -- SS doesn't excite me or maintain my interest. It sounds boring. Something is missing.

Yet, a tube friend of mine recently heard a Pass X-350 amp and thought it sounded great, and better in many ways than his Mac MC-2000 on his Nautilus 800 Signatures. I was shocked to hear this from him. I wasn't present for this comparison, and the Pass is now back at the dealer.

Tubes vs. SS is an endless debate, as has been seen in these forums. I haven't had any of the top solid state choices in my system, so I can't say how they fare compared to tubes. The best SS amp I had was a McCormack DNA-1 Rev. A, but it still didn't sound like my tube amps, VT-100 Mk II & Cary V-12.

Have any of you have tried SS amps that provided these qualities I describe in tubes? Or, did you also find that you couldn't get these qualities from a SS amp?
kevziek
blueswan
211 posts
 
I feel that a considerable cost upgrade was required to get a SS amp that I could live with. I eventually went with Accuphase. It has the so-called 'Accuphase Golden-Glow' sound, a smoothness and fullness similar to tubes, but with the power to rattle the walls. I currently drive it with an Air Tight tube preamp and I am quite pleased with the combo.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Dburdic, I agree with you about tube systems. I hear the tube amp. Some of the tube defenders call this continuous space. I call it glueon. I like black space. On the other hand, I have yet to hear, vinyl aside, an ss system sound pleasing. Like Tubegroover, I strive for a balance twixt the two. I use a transparent Pass X 150 for power, a Pass Aleph P for gentle switching; and a well tubed Jolida 100 controls the sound. As has been noted, solid state amp technology has progressed, so much so, that you won't hear any evil second order harmonics. Pass X and XA amps are foremost examples. Then again, the Pass amp can sound horrible if used in a poor sounding system. It is a slave to whatever is fed to it. I think we all understand that.
fatparrot
1,314 posts
 
I would add Atma-sphere amps to this list. OTL amps that really "kick" at lower levels. My former amp (integrated) was an EAR 834. Great amp, about the same power as my new Atma-sphere MK60-2.2's, but what a difference in presentation! The EAR had the definate lush tube bloom, sweet but without the bass control and snap that the Atma-sphere has. The Atma-sphere OTL combines the warmth and liquidity of tubes with the punch and control of transistors, without that solid state "hash". (Please email me if you want more info on Atma-sphere equipment. I have no financial interest in this product line, I just know an affordable gem when I hear it!!!)
karls
332 posts
 
I've been very curious about the Berning but never tried it. Do you have any experience with driving lower-impedance speakers with it? My speakers are a ruler-flat 3.5 Ohms with near-zero phase throughout the entire audio band, except for a single closed-box peak in the bass, so what do you think? I've talked with one zh270 owner who felt that this would be pushing it a little too much, that the amp probably couldn't handle that kind of load. But if you have any comments, I'd love to hear them.

I appreciate the Atmasphere approach, but I can't bring myself to burn that much juice or to think about the retubing costs!
twl
3,251 posts
 
Karl, I think that it could do it, with the feedback selector switch in the 2 ohm position. My experience with the low impedance on the Bernings is some of the "life" goes out of the music. I think that this limits the dynamic headroom capability of the amp. I did not notice any problems with reproducing the low frequencies with a 4 ohm impedance load. It was most noticeable to me in the midrange vocals, where some "life" left the sound. 6 ohms was just as "happy" as 8, so anything above 6 ohm nominal should not be noticeable. I found this when I was doing some speaker designing for my MicroZOTL which is a push-pull design much like the ZH270 except no feedback. By using some non-inductive load resistors in a series-parallel network across the speaker terminals, I could determine the sonic behavior of the amp at different loads during play. I could determine where it would "harden up", if you will. Now the ZH270 has some limited feedback switching which provides better behavior under some difficult conditions than my no-feedback design. But my output impedance was 1.8 ohms, which is the same as the 2 ohm setting on the ZH270, so I think it would be similar. So I expect it would sound good, but not as good as a 6 or 8 ohm load.
More to discover