Tube amplifiers: distortion & coloration or transparency & realism?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by raferx, Jul 19, 2014.

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  1. raferx

    raferx Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    Can anyone comment on modern valve amplifiers having reliability issues vs. solid state?
     
  2. jupiterboy

    jupiterboy Forum Residue

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    I think it comes down to caps and other components getting old and out of spec. Availability of appropriate replacement parts is probably a bigger issue with solid state. If you want to look at reliability, you probably have to take the actual tubes out of the equation and make them a wear and tear, consumable item. Given the simplicity of the designs, and how many old tube amps live on, it is probably a toss up. Class A solid state is going to take it from the heat over time.
     
  3. DaveC113

    DaveC113 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Front Range CO
    Again, all about implementation... there are many examples of reliable and unreliable amps using both tubes and transistors... however tube amps tend to be simpler and as jupiterboy said the tubes are wear items while finding matching transistors might be difficult.

    If I were to choose to troubleshoot and repair a tube amp vs SS I will take the tube amp anyday.
     
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  4. norman_frappe

    norman_frappe Forum Resident

    audio but I see now my post was confusing. I can actually easily tell a tube guitar amp from a ss one. Audio amp it depends on a lot of factors.
     
  5. :agree:
     
  6. vinylkid58

    vinylkid58 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Victoria, B.C.
    Just like the tires on your car. The difference being, you should always have spare tubes.;)

    jeff
     
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  7. captwillard

    captwillard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville
    Even a tube amp that uses circuit board construction?
     
  8. DaveC113

    DaveC113 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Front Range CO
    Yup, they can work fine if designed correctly. They need to be sturdy to handle changing tubes and have some though put into the layout for many reasons but especially wrt heat transfer.
     
  9. captwillard

    captwillard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville
    I making sure that you'd rather repair a circuit board tube amp vs a solid state amp. Are you sure?
     
  10. norman_frappe

    norman_frappe Forum Resident

    no but the risk of damage to your speakers with a low watt tube amp failure is far less than higher watt ss with no dc offset protection.
     
  11. DaveC113

    DaveC113 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Front Range CO
    Depends... if a tube socket is damaged then it may be difficult or impossible to replace.
     
  12. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
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    That certainly is the goal of some designers but not all designers. I don't want a straight wire with gain. I want euphonic colorations. I am glad that there are designers that get that and give me what I want. I am glad that we have a choice.
     
  13. DaveC113

    DaveC113 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Front Range CO
    Yup... I was just looking into OPTs for the amp I'm building and the maker of the OPTs was kind of shocked that I am an engineer and I also sometimes make design decisions with my ears rather than with measurements. :)
     
  14. gingerly

    gingerly Change Returns Success

    I want euphony at home, as long as it's subtle, but not at work. :)
     
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  15. googlymoogly

    googlymoogly Forum Resident

    Right on! :thumbsup:
     
  16. ROLO46

    ROLO46 Forum Resident

    Valves are consumables........
    Digital devices hardly ever fail as do D amps.
     
  17. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
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    My ARC tube gear outlasted 3 CD players through the 80s. I've changed tubes twice on the amp and twice on the preamp in 28 years and 22 years.
     
  18. Mike in OR

    Mike in OR Through Middle-earth...onto Heart of The Sunrise

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    My last tubeset on my amp I got almost 8500 hours out of the 300Bs, I have over 3500 hours on the current set.
     
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  19. Burt

    Burt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kirkwood, MO
    PCBs can be fine for tube circuits provided that several considerations are kept in mind. The traces have to be laid out with creepage in mind and the voltages and currents available in a fault situation need to be controlled. The board should also be mounted for access as it will need to be accessed on both sides and should be removable without major butchery.

    Ideally a dust resistant conformal coating will be applied which can be cleaned and if needed peeled back and repaired. The service literature must call out the correct coating and solvent to enable repair.

    The board material has to be appropriate too.

    It's okay to use PCB mounted tube sockets for small signal tubes but a PCB mounted socket is not okay for power tubes. Sooner or later a catastrophic tube fail will also fail the board. If the manufacturer guarantees availability of replacement boards at a reasonable price forever it might be tolerable, but they never do.

    All in all tagboard construction makes lifeso much easier, although there is no evil in having some functions modularized by putting them on sub-boards so long as the above is considered.
     
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  20. Burt

    Burt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kirkwood, MO
    Euphony can be pleasant sometimes but any systematic euphony is dysphony somewhere else. If I want artificial euphony I want it done at line level and controllable and quantifiable. That's what Aphex and guys like that do.
     
    kfringe likes this.
  21. kman

    kman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    What ever you just said, is poetry for the ears
     
  22. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
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    IME it is equipment dependent. Some gear offers euphonic colorations with trade offs but I have found components that seem to have all the euphony with no substantial down side. But this is not common.
     
  23. ROLO46

    ROLO46 Forum Resident

    Buy an Aphex Aural exciter then
     
  24. Scott Wheeler

    Scott Wheeler Forum Resident

    Location:
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    Why?
     
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  25. jupiterboy

    jupiterboy Forum Residue

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    Because being compulsively dominant and commanding people feels natural.
     
    T'mershi Duween and nm_west like this.
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