Building a Tube Amp! Does it produce better audio quality though? EB#47
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Date: 2020-11-08
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Comments and reviews: 10
eric
Honestly, I dont see why for a stereo you'd use valves these days. However for guitar amplification the real difference is in the type of distortion you get when you crank the amp. Also they have all valve gain stages which makes a perceptible difference. If you drive a valve guitar amp into breakup you can modulate the amount of distortion you get with the volume control on the guitar and with your pick attack. A demo I used to do of this was play a chord gently and it'd come out clean, play it hard and it comes out distorted. The type of distortion (especially from the power section) also keeps you 'honest' in your playing as you can't hide sloppy technique as opposed to say using a lot of distortion from an effects pedal or an overdriven preamp section. While there is a some hand wavey nonsense among audiophiles, there are definite tonal and dynamic differences between solid state and valve guitar amps. A good valve amp is as much a part of the instrument as the guitar when it comes to how the sound is shaped. However the biggest component in the quality of the sound is always the quality of the player.
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Honestly, I dont see why for a stereo you'd use valves these days. However for guitar amplification the real difference is in the type of distortion you get when you crank the amp. Also they have all valve gain stages which makes a perceptible difference. If you drive a valve guitar amp into breakup you can modulate the amount of distortion you get with the volume control on the guitar and with your pick attack. A demo I used to do of this was play a chord gently and it'd come out clean, play it hard and it comes out distorted. The type of distortion (especially from the power section) also keeps you 'honest' in your playing as you can't hide sloppy technique as opposed to say using a lot of distortion from an effects pedal or an overdriven preamp section. While there is a some hand wavey nonsense among audiophiles, there are definite tonal and dynamic differences between solid state and valve guitar amps. A good valve amp is as much a part of the instrument as the guitar when it comes to how the sound is shaped. However the biggest component in the quality of the sound is always the quality of the player.
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Harry
Nice diction lovey handwriting left handed too! Breadboarding very poor soldering to the tube pins is so wrong use a socket in future production and there will be if you care.
The tube sound is developed not in a single class A gain stages with all the charter being completely lost in a PDM output stage in a big ic this is a marketing ploy only and has no porpoises.
The true magical happens in the push pull using a transformer because of the THD total harmonica distortion development of even order harmonics and the cancellation of the odd order human beings brains prefer even order this is at a brain level and can t be changed try it your self it would have to be done well within your systems capable and put a small push/pull amp in the line and put in a a/b switch to bypass the stage
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Nice diction lovey handwriting left handed too! Breadboarding very poor soldering to the tube pins is so wrong use a socket in future production and there will be if you care.
The tube sound is developed not in a single class A gain stages with all the charter being completely lost in a PDM output stage in a big ic this is a marketing ploy only and has no porpoises.
The true magical happens in the push pull using a transformer because of the THD total harmonica distortion development of even order harmonics and the cancellation of the odd order human beings brains prefer even order this is at a brain level and can t be changed try it your self it would have to be done well within your systems capable and put a small push/pull amp in the line and put in a a/b switch to bypass the stage
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education
Do tube amps produce better audio quality?
No. Obvious.
Traditional solid state digital audio is a perfect 1: 1 reproduction of the publisher's original. It is a guaranteed 100% bit-perfect reproduction.
A tube amp's output is an altered rendition of the publisher's original. It is not a 100% bit-perfect reproduction. It has flaws.
If YOU think that the flawed and altered rendition sounds better, then make your choice accordingly; but objectively, my all scientific measures, the tube amp is not as good because it does not faithfully reproduce the original.
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Do tube amps produce better audio quality?
No. Obvious.
Traditional solid state digital audio is a perfect 1: 1 reproduction of the publisher's original. It is a guaranteed 100% bit-perfect reproduction.
A tube amp's output is an altered rendition of the publisher's original. It is not a 100% bit-perfect reproduction. It has flaws.
If YOU think that the flawed and altered rendition sounds better, then make your choice accordingly; but objectively, my all scientific measures, the tube amp is not as good because it does not faithfully reproduce the original.
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David
I was a little bit confused about the tubes not producing high-frequency components. As far as I know, any distortion created by the non-linearity in the operation of the amplifier will produce harmonics in the frequency spectrum disregarding the amplifier's physical implementation. One way to look at it is that a sine wave with distortion can be mathematically modeled as a Fourier series with energy in the sine wave harmonic frequencies.
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I was a little bit confused about the tubes not producing high-frequency components. As far as I know, any distortion created by the non-linearity in the operation of the amplifier will produce harmonics in the frequency spectrum disregarding the amplifier's physical implementation. One way to look at it is that a sine wave with distortion can be mathematically modeled as a Fourier series with energy in the sine wave harmonic frequencies.
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Robert
Hi. I remember a 'portable' radio we had when I was a child. About the size of a large lunch box. There was a 90 volt battery for the high tension supply. Not sure now what the heater battery voltage was - I think it was less than six volts though. Aerial was in the lid which opened up for use. The HT battery lasted quite well, it was the heater battery that kept having to be replaced. It was advanced technology at the time. BobUK.
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Hi. I remember a 'portable' radio we had when I was a child. About the size of a large lunch box. There was a 90 volt battery for the high tension supply. Not sure now what the heater battery voltage was - I think it was less than six volts though. Aerial was in the lid which opened up for use. The HT battery lasted quite well, it was the heater battery that kept having to be replaced. It was advanced technology at the time. BobUK.
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Rich
It is a novelty nonlinear input filter. It's objectively better in all the ways that a steam engine is objectively better than an electric motor.
If you prefer all your audio filtered in this way it basically means that you think the music should be mastered differently.
I am intrigued by the idea of building valve circuits for fun but the culture around them transitions seamlessly from engineering to BS. Kinda puts me off.
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It is a novelty nonlinear input filter. It's objectively better in all the ways that a steam engine is objectively better than an electric motor.
If you prefer all your audio filtered in this way it basically means that you think the music should be mastered differently.
I am intrigued by the idea of building valve circuits for fun but the culture around them transitions seamlessly from engineering to BS. Kinda puts me off.
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Tara
Amusingly, while the amplifier I'm using with my PC is a different brand, it's virtually identical to the one you bought - you can find them new on Amazon as well, for about the 100 CAD range. The listening experience is totally subjective but I also prefer the sound it produces, and having the bluetooth connectivity is very convenient as it's one fewer cable to be connected when I dock my laptop. :)
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Amusingly, while the amplifier I'm using with my PC is a different brand, it's virtually identical to the one you bought - you can find them new on Amazon as well, for about the 100 CAD range. The listening experience is totally subjective but I also prefer the sound it produces, and having the bluetooth connectivity is very convenient as it's one fewer cable to be connected when I dock my laptop. :)
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Kenneth
Tube amps make for great musical instrument amplifiers, due to the warm tone, but for reproduction, I'd rather something that doesn't add extra harmonic distortions, since I want to hear it as it was recorded and mixed (as closely as possible.
Of course DSP technology has come a long way, and emulations of tube amps and speaker cabinets is possible (Line 6.
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Tube amps make for great musical instrument amplifiers, due to the warm tone, but for reproduction, I'd rather something that doesn't add extra harmonic distortions, since I want to hear it as it was recorded and mixed (as closely as possible.
Of course DSP technology has come a long way, and emulations of tube amps and speaker cabinets is possible (Line 6.
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Shannon
I like the audio related stuff! Tubes in the preamp do provide a softer clipping, but that's only part of tube amp. The prized dynamic and complex tube amp eq comes from the impedances in a tube driven power section. Also, an interesting way to visualize audio characteristics of a certain circuit is to run pink noise thru it into a frequency analyzer.
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I like the audio related stuff! Tubes in the preamp do provide a softer clipping, but that's only part of tube amp. The prized dynamic and complex tube amp eq comes from the impedances in a tube driven power section. Also, an interesting way to visualize audio characteristics of a certain circuit is to run pink noise thru it into a frequency analyzer.
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SignallerK
I had a few 600 W professional tube power amplifiers on my first job. They were not used of course, but it was a good chance to look inside. What I noticed is that each tube in the pre-amp section was shielded in order to keep noise level low. So, I'm always wondering why these modern tube amplifiers trying to open tubes as much as possible.
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I had a few 600 W professional tube power amplifiers on my first job. They were not used of course, but it was a good chance to look inside. What I noticed is that each tube in the pre-amp section was shielded in order to keep noise level low. So, I'm always wondering why these modern tube amplifiers trying to open tubes as much as possible.
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