Tube sound Comes, mainly, from? Pre or Power?

Detlof

Super! Glad you found the 'fit' you were seeking.

As much as 'half measures' are just half measures, it's really what's upstairs that counts in the end. What can and does float our boat or butter our bread completely.

I hesitated to use the last word in the above sentence as it makes for a more critical turn, but there does or should, come a point where we can be satisfied. Failing to achieve such an end points more to us than to the gear we own.

I resist chasing my tail routinely. it's getting much easier to do. Very good to great is where I'll stop. Acquiring one of those, "Can't be beat" rigs is pure manifest ego personified. A 'Can't be Beat' rig, simply can't be found.... in this world... it can however be found in ones mind. I tend to call that location, 'serenity'.

If a certain thing is desired, seek out that particular thing. if only the influence of that thing is sought, be OK with only it's influence. Knowing what I want seems more my issue as my percieved wants always exceed my preponderous needs.

I really wanted the tube sound for years but felt I could instill such a sound with only SS items, or with but a portion of tubes in house. it was a very frustrating time. In truth, as I've posted and asked numerous times on this site, I've wanted the SET sound without the SET prerequisites... give me SET sound with power and speed!

Good luck with that one by the way.

I just made up my mind to acquire the tube influence wholely, and have a rig which was not quite so genre restrictive as SET outfits are. Combining a tube pre and tube monos have satisfied both my wants and needs.

I guess it is as simple as this one question: How much chocolate do you really want... and just which kind?

@mechans  It is so true! The key is the tube power amplifier and I said it  before and seem few people will accept that points.

When we talk about pre, SS pre vs Tube pre, case by case, brand by brand, there is no definitely advantage on tube.

This might be the world champion of reviving an old thread, since this one is 13 years old this year. I didn’t bother to reread the entire thing, but what most people think of as the tube sound in my mind has to do with the output transformer of tube amplifiers, which even if built to the limits of current technology will always be the limiting factor and at the most distortion of any element in a tube based signal path. Tubes themselves are wide band and very low distortion. Output transformers are imperfect and add all that cuddly warmth etc. that tube aficionados like so well. That is why I have been using output transformer-less tube amplifiers for my entire audio lifespan.

My phono and pre have output transformers. So mea culpa - I like speed of proper output transformer. In both amorphous cores and in phono it's silver wired. If to add sweeties into the mix easiest way is to change output tube in phono. If to speak about modern technologies - winding machines advanced a lot compared with the old ones, there are a lot of new core materials. So in general it should be more easy to wind proper transformer.

I think I was a bit too strong in my anti-transformer statement above. I have heard many transformer coupled tube amplifiers that sound excellent. I will just leave it at that. I do apologize to those who use such amplifiers. But my post was really in defensive response to those who would say that tubes per se add distortions and colorations.