tubes and analog

This has become shameful. I'm glad Hagtech pulled out just in time.

Behave yourselves.

***

Amen, brothers Ralph, Jim, Duke ...

THE INDUSTRY IS MEASURING THE WRONG THINGS.

THD is a meaningless number. The ear is remarkably sensitive to odd-order harmonics - responding rather pleasantly to even harmonics - especially 2nd order.

Keep in mind that 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc. show up as very low numbers, but too much of these small numbers will chase you out of the room.

Some of these odd-order 'nasties' in minute proportions can be perceived as 'sparkle' or low-level detail - much like the trap people fall into when they mistakenly interpret speakers with elevated upper midrange / low-treble as having detail and pace.

This recognition of 'sparkle' and 'resolution' usually comes a few months before you find their latest prized piece of gear for sale on Audiogon.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Dear Raul,

When you wrote:

and I'm talking of those tube problems only because Mr. Atmasphere " thinks " that he lives in an " island " where only exist TUBES and where the other technologies are not " up to the task ".

Tube problems my dear Raul are a consequence of bad design and not the nature of tubes.

As far as reliability is concerned, apart from a certain manufacturer in Ralph's home state (hint: it's not Atmasphere, but does begin with the letter "A"), all of my tube gear has been more reliable than my s-s gear.

You may argue about sonics, but tubes have it all over s-s in terms of simplicity, reliability, field serviceability, and immunity from voltage spikes.

As you know all too well, we are all in this business because we love it. Ralph, Jim, you and I don't make design decisions based on the prompting of our corporate accountants, but rather our chosen path is fueled by our passions.

You endorse your design because you love it - as do Ralph, Jim, and I.

Now, I won't deny that some behavior becomes pathological over time, but I contend that we'd be nuts to be in this business if we didn't love it. There are easier ways to pay the mortgage.

We have all in our own way landed on our own island paradise, and I consider it disingenuous of you to single Ralph (Atmasphere) out in this discussion.

As has been pointed out on more than one occasion, the number of companies manufacturing tube gear is growing and not shrinking. This is quite amazing when you take into consideration the marketing blitz from the large corporations.

The marketplace is speaking. Is the marketplace mad?

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

The marketplace is speaking. Is the marketplace mad?

Like I said, I am not against tubes but am against using them to mask system anomalies. I think a large portion of tube equipment sales are due to this unfortunate latter use. My system is 100% solid state/monoblock based and my main amps have the 'to die for' midrange and holographic presentation of tubes along with the beef and sonic neutrality of solid state. The subwoofer amps deliver globs of highly controlled current at a very high speed.

My main amps

My subwoofer amps

But that's just me...

At any rate, digital is making great strides and Dan Wright replaced his Atma Sphere amps for Channel Islands digital monoblocks. Hey, it's the 21st century!

***

Kudos to Dr. Geddes but he has apparently rediscovered what has been the accepted wisdom in audio for probably more than 20 years. The only way to account for the fact that many folks prefer tube preamps and amplifiers despite the fact that they typically have higher measured distortion than SS devises is to posit Dr. Geddes conclusions, and many others have studied this phenomenon and no doubt also presented findings to the AES and like groups. IMO, one of the reasons why SET amplifiers have such a devoted following is that these devices tend to have a very low distortion at low power levels which increases pretty linearly with increasing power demands. PP amps, on the other hand, tend to have higher distortion at the lowest power levels, near the cross-over point, than they do further up the scale.

As far as Atma-sphere amplifiers damaging a speaker, I think it's highly unlikely to occur even if every single output tube were to go sour simultaneously. What is being said, Raul, is that the amp won't damage a speaker, not merely that it will not damage itself. I have a pair of Atmas with an aging output tube set. Consequently, once in a while one of the fuses on the output tubes will blow due to the tube arcing over (each tube is separately fused). This results in a barely perceptible decrease in power and decrease in the wonderfulness of the sound, but not even a hint of anything that could possibly damage a speaker, i.e., no pops, bleeps, ticks, screeches, etc. Nada. So, while I don't mean to infer that you, Raul, are being untruthful, I do think that whatever happened during that listening session to damage the speaker did not occur directly as a result of the amplifier malfunctioning. Something else was going on.