Home » Audio » Thermionic Emissions » Solid State vs. Vacuum Amps
Re: Solid State vs. Vacuum Amps [message #99123 is a reply to message #86356] Wed, 03 December 2025 06:54 Go to previous message
positron is currently offline  positron
Messages: 148
Registered: May 2020
Master
In general, I have found all tube/solid state designs are
quite inaccurate (specs mean virtually nothing except channel
separation high frequency response, damping factor etc within reason.

However, in my lab/audio company, retired for over a decade,
I was able to create a line pre-amplifier that listening
tested perceptually perfect to the source. Many musical selections
were used because of differing quality.

The amplifier was different as I used a constant load. When connecting
a reactive load, one has to match more carefully, both the correct total
gauge speaker wire for bass control, and parallel wires to minimize
reactance at higher frequencies. The wire type, Jenalabs 6N all copper,
worked nicely, and is quite superior sounding to 3N wire sold locally.  

One caveat is that every component used, sources, line pre-amplifier,
monoblock amps use polypropylene capacitors in the place of electrolytic
capacitors in decoupling applications (except high voltage amplifier
power supply with electrolytics bypassed by a large polypropylene capacitor,
and multiple cathode bypass capacitors). As such, the system is extremely
transparent, perceived sonic differences down to 1 part in
4,000,000 reliably.

I would guess most audio systems would not be as sensitive, so
sonic differences may not be as noticeable.

cheers

pos
 
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