Transistor vs. Tubes

[wolfshead]

For many years there are those who prefer either transistors or tube
amps. Transistors did allow higher power at a much cheaper cost than tubes. The need for large efficent speakers , such as horns and large base reflex speakers came to an end as a result of the transistor.

The vast majority of speakers today in the United States has been built around multi-driver affairs with complex power eating crossovers due to high power transistor amps at cheaper prices.

Europe remains to this day an innovator in friendly efficent loudspeaker design. One might wonders why designers in the US have not returned to their roots improving the designs of Altec and especially JBL speakers.
These types of speakers do very well with low powered amps.


What do many of you prefer tubes or transistors , is there really a tube sound ? how about a transistor sound. Does the newer speakers sound better with transistor amps ? Older one's with tubes ?

[grumpy]

You've got to be kidding...

[JBL 4645]

You've got to be kidding...

April fools isn’t till next month.

I don’t like tubes. One they are fragile. Two I fear it might explode leaving showers of glass around the living room also they look ugly.

Transistor amplifiers are easy to install no worries about, breaking the tubes or exploding.

As too a transistor sound over tube sound I have only heard one tube amp at richluvsound digs, no pun on the tubes they sounded great, wonderful but I just fear breaking them in my home, especially with cat that’s curious, he might start try pulling the tubes out or spraying on it, BANG! LOL oh, no! See my point!

So I’ll be staying with transistor amps most hard PA of today stay with them and very few out there use them.

Anyway I have used a tube linear power boaster for my CB radio in the past and I never was comfortable adjusting the plate and load o the thing. The blue light colour and bright glowing orange of 250watts illegal output on the SSB and on the legal CB27FM screw the government, I’m not going to broadcast 4watts I’m going with 250watts!

[wolfshead]

April fools isn’t till next month.

I don’t like tubes. One they are fragile. Two I fear it might explode leaving showers of glass around the living room also they look ugly.

Transistor amplifiers are easy to install no worries about, breaking the tubes or exploding.

As too a transistor sound over tube sound I have only heard one tube amp at richluvsound digs, no pun on the tubes they sounded great, wonderful but I just fear breaking them in my home, especially with cat that’s curious, he might start try pulling the tubes out or spraying on it, BANG! LOL oh, no! See my point!

So I’ll be staying with transistor amps most hard PA of today stay with them and very few out there use them.

Anyway I have used a tube linear power boaster for my CB radio in the past and I never was comfortable adjusting the plate and load o the thing. The blue light colour and bright glowing orange of 250watts illegal output on the SSB and on the legal CB27FM screw the government, I’m not going to broadcast 4watts I’m going with 250watts!

You are correct , tubes are fragile , run hot , requires expensive transformers , heavy and has a short life expectancy , but many audio hobbist counter they are musical , soft and has a warmth that transistors lack. Oh yes expensive. Does the pro's outweight the cons ?

[scott fitlin]

You are correct , tubes are fragile , run hot , requires expensive transformers , heavy and has a short life expectancy , but many audio hobbist counter they are musical , soft and has a warmth that transistors lack. Oh yes expensive. Does the pro's outweight the cons ?

In some cases yes they very much do. but, one can also get the tube sonics, using line level components, and SS amplifiers, and have the best of both worlds. Tube warmth and naturalness, and SS control and current delivery to woofers.

Back in the days that tubes ruled the world, it was the only things we had to do the job. They built HUGE speakers, with larger rear chamber volumes than they do today, and highly efficient drivers, to work with the power we had available at the time.

Today, just as we have European made high efficiency designs, and tube gear, so to, do we have American made stuff of this type too. BUT it is a much smaller niche market. unlike yesterday when it was the norm.

Size and expense come into play here. And you or I may love something and use it based only on the sonic attributes, doesn't mean the rest of society will agree and follow, and PURCHASE these kinds of products.

As it happens, there really are a great deal of tube amps available, and large speakers that will work with low power amps too. many speakers available based upon the older designs as well. But, again, small market compared to what is the norm today.

One thing I really do agree with you on, though, is that you need large speakers to reproduce big sound, properly. But, tell the consumers of today and see if you can make it sell in numbers the manufacturers today are used to selling!

Then, the expense! Your gonna have a harder time convincing todays consumer that they NEED a 20 watt per channel tube amp that costs $11,000, over a $1600 250wpc SS amp. You will just never convince enough that your way is the correct way, especially in todays world economies.

However, in defense of today, too, there are many SS amps that do sound fantastic, and AFAIC, SS can and does surpass tube amps in the LF, although mids and hf sound phenomenal with tubes.

Personally, I do line level tube, and SS amplification! Works very well for me, too.

[JBL 4645]

You are correct , tubes are fragile , run hot , requires expensive transformers , heavy and has a short life expectancy , but many audio hobbist counter they are musical , soft and has a warmth that transistors lack. Oh yes expensive. Does the pro's outweight the cons ?

Transistor least expensive least the ones I brought 20 years ago, where around £40, Marantz 1050 £45 Marantz 1050 and £40 Marantz 1030. Alesis RA300 x3, £140.00.

The Marantz still kicking for 30 year old amplifier thou there mostly used for HF today and surrounds while RA300 do LF and centre back and LFE.1.

I’ve never once seen a tube amp selling for second-hand in the common Exchange and Mart, may have at Hi-Fi shop, but the cost, that is what they are.

I’m curious how well a tube amp will stand-up against Star Trek 2009 on Bluray with the LFE.1 track?

[scott fitlin]

Playing HT or music recordings that contain very deep LF at high level, tube amps can quickly run out of gas. You might also notice tube bass is not as tight as SS bass. But, mids and highs thru tubes are darling sounding, especially todays digital music. Again, cost, and size, plus heat and ventilation issues will always be a consideration when it comes to tubes.

However, there are stellar sounding examples of both types of technologies today. It isn't 1967 anymore, when transistors really did sound terrible!

[SEAWOLF97]

You've got to be kidding...

no ......

and the next thread will be:

ford vs chevy (or Toyota vs Honda for the import guys) ..when driving to buy new audio gear.

coke vs Pepsi ..when listening to audio gear.

Repub vs Democrat listening styles


ad infinitum.

Ad infinitum is a Latin phrase meaning "to infinity."
In context, it usually means "continue forever, without limit" and thus can be used to describe a non-terminating process, a non-terminating repeating process.



how 'bout a topic that hasn't been beaten to death before ??

[JBL 4645]

Playing HT or music recordings that contain very deep LF at high level, tube amps can quickly run out of gas. You might also notice tube bass is not as tight as SS bass. But, mids and highs thru tubes are darling sounding, especially todays digital music. Again, cost, and size, plus heat and ventilation issues will always be a consideration when it comes to tubes.

However, there are stellar sounding examples of both types of technologies today. It isn't 1967 anymore, when transistors really did sound terrible!

Scotty
Wow thanks for the heads-up. They wouldn’t explode due to sudden high peak levels in LFE.1 frequency?

Transistor types was used for Earthquake Sensurround and didn’t have issues least the shows I saw kept on playing at silly high SPL 120 db.

[scott fitlin]

no



how 'bout a topic that hasn't been beaten to death before ??

You got a point! But, i'll cut Wolfie some slack here. I mean, hey, Rip Van Winkle woke up twenty years later, world was vastly different. And it has even been a bit longer for Wolf, since 1969, so

[scott fitlin]

Scotty
Wow thanks for the heads-up. They wouldn’t explode due to sudden high peak levels in LFE.1 frequency?

Transistor types was used for Earthquake Sensurround and didn’t have issues least the shows I saw kept on playing at silly high SPL 120 db.

The tube won't explode.

Yeah, by 1974 that BGW amp used to run the Cerwin Vega Earthquake worked pretty well in it's intended application!

[JBL 4645]

The tube won't explode.

Yeah, by 1974 that BGW amp used to run the Cerwin Vega Earthquake worked pretty well in it's intended application!

Whew that’s a load of my mind. Okay they won’t explode. What about glass cracking? Also do these have to be treated like video projectors or is the heat dissipated away from the tube as its in an open space for cooling.

BGW, bet those are vintage today, if there are many around in existence?

Here! Doesn’t Tom, have one pair in his home? hmm?

Edit:
I’m reading up on the BGW now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGW_Systems

[jcrobso]

What heck it's my birthday, got my medicare card in my pocket, might as well have some fun!
First off, I love my tube guitar amp, many guitar players do.
They describe the sound as "FAT", Hi-Fi people describe the sound as "warm".
It's the same sound, the guitar amp will probably have 3~5% distortion were the Hi-Fi amp will usually have a little less than 1% distortion.
Tubes age, their values change, adjustments need to be made, they can become micro-phonic and add strange noises to the audio, run hot, big transformers, etc.
I'm NOT putting tube amps down, just stating what I found out from experience. I remember our big mono console, it would start sounding bad, so pull out all 26 tubes and off to have them tested, find the bad one(s) get new ones and back home.
SS amps just run, yes things can go wrong, but with a tube amp you know that things are going to go wrong.

[JBL 4645]

What heck it's my birthday, got my medicare card in my pocket, might as well have some fun!

jcrobso didn't see it on the main board?

[Allanvh5150]

Just to dispell a few myths, tubes have always been more powerful than solid state ranging from powers in the milliwatt range all the way up to 1 Mega watt plus. Tube amps can also deliver plenty of bottom end. Just fo an example, 4 x 211 tubes are capable of pumping out 1000 watts without too much of a problem.

Allan.