Tube Amps

[markshan]

Yes, the tube amps inherently deliver generous amounts of 2nd order harmonic distortion. They just lack the balls to drive big-ass speakers. I went to Atlanta one year to hear some Klipsch theater speakers that were 105db eff. And the guy had a tube amp driving them, so after his demo song I asked him, " is this all they can deliver ? The percussion is not chest thumping".

Basic physics shows that "big ass speakers" actually require less amp, not more. If you want chest pounding bass, you can always run tube mains and a powered sub.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Yes, the tube amps inherently deliver generous amounts of 2nd order harmonic distortion. They just lack the balls to drive big-ass speakers. I went to Atlanta one year to hear some Klipsch theater speakers that were 105db eff. And the guy had a tube amp driving them, so after his demo song I asked him, " is this all they can deliver ? The percussion is not chest thumping". He said well I can switch it out to a SS amp and we can see what happens, after the replay he stated he was going to be selling it as he realized it just didn't have the umph .

I apologize for getting a little off topic but I had a Crown Macro Reference amplifier that had a damping factor >20,000 from 10-200hz and 1800 @1000hz and delivered 1500 watts/ch @ 2 ohms stereo. Talk about a great amp to drive subs with.
Stereohile article-
https://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/1292crown/index.html
My big Audio Research SP-12C tube preamp was glorious sounding, but probably the best sounding was my SS Classe CP-35 Preamp, should have never sold that one. I have always tried not to romanticize about certain kinds of gear like tubes and horns, but have owned the Holy Grails like the 1943 RCA Ubangi bass cabinet with (2) 15" field coil drivers at 105db eff. And weighing 535lbs, 8ft long. Along with the matching Western Electric tube amps.

Love the Crown Macro Reference article. By Sam Tellig? The original Audio Cheapskate?
I guess he moved up in the world.

 

[hobie1dog]

Hyperbole much?

Absolutely not.
I attended one the West Coast Audio shows years ago and met a blind man who was going room to room with us. He was the only person at the show who was not biased. Everyone else formed a visual bias upon entering each room as they sized up the equipment. Mini monitors, horns, electrostatics, planers, all the rest of us were prejudice on certain equipment. He on the other hand had no idea what he was listening to, and as one would expect had very acute hearing. It was great fun hearing his comments before we told him what he was listening to.

 

[hobie1dog]

Basic physics shows that "big ass speakers" actually require less amp, not more. If you want chest pounding bass, you can always run tube mains and a powered sub.

If you show up with a set of big tower speakers like the Infinity Quantam Line Source, VMPS Super Towers, Magnepan 3.7 or 20.1, Apogee models, etc. And you think you need less power? Talk about anemic sound, put a small tube amp on any of those big speakers and you will find out how important it is to have sufficient wattage to feed all those voice coils and driver surface area.

 

[Beefalo]

If you show up with a set of big tower speakers like the Infinity Quantam Line Source, VMPS Super Towers, Magnepan 3.7 or 20.1, Apogee models, etc. And you think you need less power? Talk about anemic sound, put a small tube amp on any of those big speakers and you will find out how important it is to have sufficient wattage to feed all those voice coils and driver surface area.

I've never blown speakers because I had too much power....only happened when I had too little.

 

[hobie1dog]

I've never blown speakers because I had too much power....only happened when I had too little.

Exactly, as you will sending a clipped signal to your voice coils as your amp quickly runs out a power trying to get the drivers moving enough travel to meet your spl requirements. Amplifiers clipping ruins more voice coils than anything else.

 

[Soundfield]

Hope I'm not stepping on the thread. There was a misquote, or misinterpretation, I think, where "for" was read as "of". The statement appears to not be " I really didn't need massive amounts of musical realism" , it was "...for musical realism". I suspect Soundfield's intent was to reference the previous sentence about power as such " I really didn't need massive amounts [of power] for musical realism" . Apologies to Soundfield if I got it wrong, but I felt I had to say something.
And I agree. I enjoy music.

Thank you for reading carefully, the word 'for' was indeed critical!!
And that was exactly my point, I feel I achieve a high level of realism of performance without wasting massive amounts of power in order to make huge arrays of vastly inefficient large cone speakers flap about unnecessarily.
In fact I think that, in the home as opposed to a PA system, the realism, nuance and atmosphere of accurate musical reproduction can be inversely proportional to the power employed! I have heard way too many completely unconvincing "hifi" systems whose owners think they must be realistic simply because they can make enough noise to knock the plaster off the ceiling!

 

[markshan]

Absolutely not.
I attended one the West Coast Audio shows years ago and met a blind man who was going room to room with us. He was the only person at the show who was not biased. Everyone else formed a visual bias upon entering each room as they sized up the equipment. Mini monitors, horns, electrostatics, planers, all the rest of us were prejudice on certain equipment. He on the other hand had no idea what he was listening to, and as one would expect had very acute hearing. It was great fun hearing his comments before we told him what he was listening to.

The blind person wasn't the hyperbole. The convince them that an actual concert is happening was.

 

[markshan]

If you show up with a set of big tower speakers like the Infinity Quantam Line Source, VMPS Super Towers, Magnepan 3.7 or 20.1, Apogee models, etc. And you think you need less power? Talk about anemic sound, put a small tube amp on any of those big speakers and you will find out how important it is to have sufficient wattage to feed all those voice coils and driver surface area.

Less power than those same drivers and networks in a smaller box, sure.

The VCs and surface area eat far less power than the involved crossover networks.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

If appropriate on the site, as a Newbie I wanted to ask if anyone is familiar with the Jolida JD 502B tube amp and if so, can you let me know your thoughts as to its performance capabilities, etc.
Thanks much!

Hello again disc rider!
You certainly started an thought provoking thread. But now I am wondering how your search for a new amp is going. And is it just 1 stereo amp for the front chs perhaps a stereo pair for surround?

Interesting review on the Jolida to read if you haven't seen it already:
https://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/jolida502b_e.html