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Sun, 11 January 2026 03:03

Kurt
Messages: 15
Registered: December 2025

Chancellor

I am someone who's invested a lot in keeping tube amps alive and it saddens me when I see some myths about thermionic emission around some communities.

Which ones have you seen recently?

Personally, I have one that I've seen and I would like to clear the air about them.

I've seen this myth that tube amps are inferior to solid-state. I believe this is absolute nonsense. I mean we've got recent tubes from brands such as Tung-Sol performing absolutely better than vintage Nos, for example. I've got the boutique 50W head doing well since 2019 when I got it. I've only done some routine bias checks and occasional tube replacement. I believe that reliability comes from great power supply design and not basically from pushing tubes beyond specs.

Which other ones do you have in mind that you think are wrong?

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Thu, 15 January 2026 08:28

positron
Messages: 163
Registered: May 2020

Master

Kurt wrote on Sun, 11 January 2026 03:03

I am someone who's invested a lot in keeping tube amps alive and it saddens me when I see some myths about thermionic emission around some communities.

Which ones have you seen recently?

Personally, I have one that I've seen and I would like to clear the air about them.

I've seen this myth that tube amps are inferior to solid-state. I believe this is absolute nonsense. I mean we've got recent tubes from brands such as Tung-Sol performing absolutely better than vintage Nos, for example. I've got the boutique 50W head doing well since 2019 when I got it. I've only done some routine bias checks and occasional tube replacement. I believe that reliability comes from great power supply design and not basically from pushing tubes beyond specs.

Which other ones do you have in mind that you think are wrong?

Hi Kurt,

I have also heard that myth about SS being better. Nothing could be further
from the truth. I have a couple of posts in this string, below, mentioning
just a few differences, and why SS will never be perfect to the source but
Tube amplifier can be extremely close.

One caveat to mention is that as one gets closer to perfect accuracy to the
source, one must be more careful to the "little" things.

As one example, I have been R&D analog since 1980, delving into audio
perception and component design, and use multiple 6N pure copper speaker wires
in parallel, for both minimal inductance at high frequencies, and total gauge
for optimal woofer damping (at least the best one can obtain).

Besides those two, one must consider a flat response over the entire audio
band since the speaker impedance changes (usually cone types) from minimal
to maximum. I have found that there is an optimal total gauge that will give
flattest frequency response, and most natural sound.

https://audioroundtable.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=21561&start=0&

Thanks for starting this string Kurt.

Cheers

pos

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Thu, 23 April 2026 10:01

gofar99
Messages: 2025
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Hi, it is bogus. (I am finally back see Tower) I have had a total of three listeners sell off their expensive SS amps (two were Mark Ls that ran over $11,000) for a pair of Oddwatts. Tube amps are not better or worse that SS ones. If well designed both will do the job well. To be sure there some speaker that work better on one kind or the other. I would not use many tube amps on current hungry speakers and would probably not use SS ones on many of the vintage high sensitivity speakers. It is sort of like putting gas in a vehicle. All types will generally work but some may work better in certain vehicles.

Good Listening
Bruce

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Sat, 09 May 2026 00:05

Kurt
Messages: 15
Registered: December 2025

Chancellor

gofar99 wrote on Thu, 23 April 2026 10:01

Hi, it is bogus. (I am finally back see Tower) I have had a total of three listeners sell off their expensive SS amps (two were Mark Ls that ran over $11,000) for a pair of Oddwatts. Tube amps are not better or worse that SS ones. If well designed both will do the job well. To be sure there some speaker that work better on one kind or the other. I would not use many tube amps on current hungry speakers and would probably not use SS ones on many of the vintage high sensitivity speakers. It is sort of like putting gas in a vehicle. All types will generally work but some may work better in certain vehicles.

You certainly said it the way it is. The thing is one needs to figure out what works with speakers that they intend using it on before arriving on a conclusion. Making the right decision, just like you said, makes it easier for all. DO you have specific speaker brands that you think can work with solid-state amps, for example?

Good to see you back, mate.

Wishing you the best of the weekend!

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Sun, 10 May 2026 23:44

positron
Messages: 163
Registered: May 2020

Master

I for one will never use a SS amplifier (or preamplifier). It is all
tube for me except for the dac. There are just inherent problems with
SS that cannot be solved.

Tubes designs are a completely different story. I have described some of
the inherent problems with SS in another string called "Solid State vs
Vacuum Amps", in this Tube subforum.

I finished up my phono stage (except somewhat haywire look) and I do find
some LPs superior but costly, to high rez ss dacs).

Cheers

steve

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Mon, 11 May 2026 11:43

gofar99
Messages: 2025
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Hi. Both an easy and hard question to answer. Any speakers that do not provide specs I would pass on. Ones that do ... for tube use should be relatively high sensitivity. I would want 90 db/w or better. If they give input impedance over the audio band width (unlikely) a more or less linear value would be desirable. They will always have resonance peaks and probably drop off in the high end. If it is excessive then many tube amps will probably have difficulty in that range. Another clue is physical size. If the speaker is small (like less than a cubic foot) and they claim wide response they are likely inefficient. See Theil's equations. Essentially loudness, response and box size are interrelated. That doesn't mean that you need something the size of a fridge although that would be really cool. Specifics. Any of Waynes speakers would work very well on tube amps of modest size. Other than them, most 75 era klipsch, Alted Lansing and similar would be fine. For newer stuff the only ones I am sure of are the Martin Logan ESLs like I have. 20 watts rms is plenty to drive you out of the room. Other ESLs are usually inefficient. Also a what I call a useless spec often given for speakers is max power handling. It really doesn't tell you anything useful. I have seen extreme cases where a 3 inch paper cone speaker was listed as able to handle 1000 watts. It would go incandescent immediately.

Good Listening
Bruce

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