BG>
MSGID: 1:203/909@fidonet.org cc8fa908
BG>Hi Keith!
BG>-> If I ever get a CD player, I'm gonna put a 12AX7 on the output --
BG>-> strip off the digital trash and replace it with nice warm analog
BG>-> trash! A few months ago I listened to Bob Carver's new "Sunfire" amp.
BG>-> In the "tube emulation" mode, there's a small but distinct muddiness
BG>-> in the highs.
BG> FETs and bi-fets don't do it for you?
AFAIK, field-effect types sound closest to tubes, without the mud.
I think tubes have largely been superseded in top-end hi-fi.  But
I do like the sound of an ancient Dynaco Stereo 70 I rescued from
the scrap heap.
The reason I don't like CDs is just 'cuz I've only heard two CD
players over the years that didn't make my ears hurt after about
20 minutes.  But from a production point of view digital is great.
I still like discrete opamps the
BG>best like the old Automated Processes and Spectrasonics professional
BG>consoles used. I'm not sure if I can really go back to tubes for most of
BG>anything... BTW, I have about 50 of those tubes in an old musical
BG>instrument called a Cordovox that is an accordian with a built in organ
BG>in it.. Hmm... hidden gold mine here???
My allegiance to tubes is bascially for guitar amps.  Nobody has
yet built a solid-state guitar amp that's quite as good as tubes,
altho some have gotten close.  I think it's probably 'cuz the
guitar signal has so much dynamic range that some part of it is
always being overdriven.  Tubes are natural compressors, and
when power tubes clip, they do it very differently than solid state.
But if your hi-fi or commercial amp is clipping, you're doing it wrong.
So that shouldn't be an issue.
The other thing is that solid-body electric guitars sound dull as
dishwater through a hi-fi amp.  I think tubes put back some of the
harmonic resonance that you get from a hollow-body instrument.
I sometimes get to hear a top-end Krell system with some weird-looking
B&W speakers, and I agree that at that level, the tube era is past.
 * SLMR 2.1a *   Dammit Jim, I'm a writer, not a morning person!
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