Tubes? Transistors? Which are better?

Khrys: Since you didn't write the above, I didn't write this. The issue of truth and accuracy in audio reproduction is the raison d'etre for this industry. For many of us, the ideal is to faithfully (high fidelity) replicate the aural experience of the original event. Since we can almost never know how that original event sounded, we must rely upon our own sensitivities and experiences to determine how closely what we are hearing comes to that imagined original. If you have spent a lot of time in the concert venue, both on stage and off, you should have a better sense of what that reality is than one who has not. It's sufficient to say that for me, several decades of critical listening has provided me with a good sense of how closely a reproduced sound comes to my remembered aural experience base. I have learned from years of interacting with and sharing this hobby with many others that there are legions of listeners who have little or no idea of what a real orchestra (for example) sounds like in the concert hall or anywhere else. The orchestra, or jazz ensemble is a good reference standard for the sound of an audio system. This type of musical group is, for the most part, comprised of unamplified acoustical instruments. And these instruments are, at least for now, still the predominate source of most of the music we hear. So ideally, according to this concept of accuracy, the less corrupted the source material, the better......... I have a 50 year old art book at home which is filled with photographs of many of the finest 17th-19th century masters. This book was printed in the early years of color photography. The color was originally not especially accurate and has faded considerably since. These photographs are indeed color representations of those masterworks. They are interesting and emotionally moving at times. But they are not ACCURATE. I know this because I have seen a few of those paintings in person and can see many more of them in recently printed art books. So for some, accuracy is a kind of truth. And truth has greater beauty when it is not corrupted or distorted.

Waldhorner, I don't find much enjoyment wondering if what I'm hearing sounds like the imagined original(?). I just listen to it and like it or not. I tune my system to like most of what I hear. You want to "faithfully replicate the aural experience of the original event." Could you please teach me to do that? BTW, I'll take that 50 year old art book off your hands any day.

Khrys I don't wonder at all whether what I am hearing sounds like the original, I know it doesn't. Real unamplified acoustic music is my reference. It is THE ABSOLUTE SOUND PERIOD!!! And the ultimate enjoyment for me is my passion for live music, not audio. The line is when it sounds real. Sorry if I’m a dreamer and always use real as my reference. Is it too much to hope for? That said I feel quite confident that those Genesis 200’s in the room of my dreams might get me a bit closer than I currently am. Performance, interpretation and the like aside the point Waldhorner is making has do with the ultimate emotional connection one gets from a live performance that is missing in reproduced audio. Tell me Khrys, do you really enjoy listening to reproduced audio in the same way and get the same enjoyment that you do from a great live performance? Or is it a compromise that you are currently content with? If you do, all I can say is I envy you. I say this because I see from your posts that you are a music lover also and not just an audiophile. Don’t tell me they are two different experiences. Let’s face it we wouldn’t be spending all this dough if we didn’t hope that we could connect better with the music, would we? So why did you spend 10K on your Vandy 5 (right?). To get closer to the real thing. Sounds to me from your post that you are a little more satisfied than I am at the present moment that’s all. It will probably change. That is one thing for certain about audiophiles, our moods and perceptions change like the weather. My discontent (it happens almost every time I go to a concert) arose over my recent attendance of a great concert consisting of a great orchestra performing a great piece of music and topping it off with a great performance. Damn, I hate that when it happens. Now I have to get that great performance out of my mind and get on with life. It is really hard listening to Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto after that. It puts me in an “upgrade” mood. I don’t like it when that happen either. Just spending money on a little improvement that gets me about as close to the realness of that performance as voice lessons will get me closer to being a great singer. “How you going to keep em down on the farm after they’ve seen Parree?” Waldhorner I sure hope the reason for the hi-end industry is for the ultimate truth and accuracy in reproduced audio. If not we’ll be in the same place 20 years from now talking about the same things. Maybe the latest power cables from the transformer to the service panel will be the new fav.

Tubegroover, good points above. However, I avoid "ultimate truth and accuracy" in audio like the plague. Half the reproduced music I listen to never occurred in real time anyway. But if it did the last thing I would be worried about is what it is supposed to sound like. How will you ever know? You aural memory? Good luck. My enjoyment of audio increased exponentially when I stopped listening for what I was not hearing.

Khrys The ultimate truth is dealing with a bigger issue, the obvious differences between real and recorded. The fundamental stuff like, harmonic integrity, and timbre accuracy and dynamics. The stuff that jumps out at you. Audio with all its inherent colorations and limitations obsures the realness of music, it masks it. It doesn't take aural memory to differentiate between the truth and reproduced. It is as obvious to me as the difference between a cat and dog. No I certainly don't have ANY problem with studio recordings, rock and alternative etc. that are altered through mix downs, overdubbing and the like to get a particular sound. That type of music is not my reference nor should it be a reference at all. The fact is if you get real unamplified acoustical instruments to sound real, everything else will fall into place. Isn't The Absolute Sound the ultimate objective or are settling for less because a. It will never happen or worse, b. it really doesn't matter?