2. amps-preamps
  3. 1249416499

"Tube Like" SS Integrated Amps

I'm looking for opinions on SS integrated amps that are often described as having a "smooth" or "tube-like" sound. Examples I've heard described this way are Audio Refinement Complete Alpha, Music Hall Mambo and Rega Mira. I'm looking at amps that cost no more than $800 used. There are far too many choices, especially if you include the Chinese made tube integrateds.

Do these amps represent a good compromise at the price point between SS harshness and tube flabbiness? Would a hybrid integrated typically do the tube sound better? The Jolida 1301, as cheap as it is, seems to consistently get high marks. I wonder what at this price point does the most right (and least wrong)?

meskandar
macd
103 posts
 
Companies like Plinius, Classe, Yba, Naim, and Pass have a reputation for being "Tube Like" but it is better rephrased, "some similarities with tubes sound". In the end it is still SS.
hifijunkieoz
45 posts
 
Second ELECTROCOMPANIET. Had a couple of their Intergrated amp and very tube like.
sonicbeauty
324 posts
 
Another vote for the Electrocompaniet, I owned this one. Be carefull however with some faulty volume pots on certain units.

Naim ? This is as far from a ''tube sound'' as you can get in my book.
sonicbeauty
324 posts
 
Mrtennis, I could have guessed your post without seeing your username. As usual, complicated and unclear. Why don't you just answer the question and keep it simple for once ?
pauly
1,012 posts
 
Sonic, this is one of the few times (or the first?) I agree with Mr. T.

'Tube sound' means different things to different people. The vast majority refer to 'tube sound' as the coloration caused by a tube amp - speaker mismatch, hence the comments of 'tubby or loose bass', 'attenuated highs' etc. etc. associated with tube amps.

A good tube amplifier mated with the correct speaker will produce very solid bass and extended highs. Unlike a good transistor amp, the notes throughout the frequency spectrum will decay naturally as a tube amp has a much lower sound floor than a comparable transistor amp. Transistor amps tend to chop off the decaying notes.

Either way, no transistor amp can ever have tube sound.

Regards
Paul
More to discover