Anyone quit tubes due to sound?

I confess, I'm not quite sure what I mean by the question. From another thread, it occurred to me that tube users seem pretty sonically happy. So I'm wondering if anyone stopped using tubes because they decided they just did not like the sound. (That is different from "got tired of changing/biasing tubes" "too hot for my room" "changed back to solid state to get huge power" and such practical reasons). I'm also feeling "tried a cheap tube amp and didn't like it" is a different kid of exception.

I had some tube amps back in the day from my uncle, may he rest in peace. They were great, but one eventually burned while driving a large woofer which was being used as a fruit bowl, thus causing the fruit to jump, much to the amusement of the variously intoxicated and high attendees at the soiree. The other...I forget what happened. And heading off to college, solid state replacement (NAD 3020 IIRC) was more compact and far more affordable and low in S/N. Later I changed to receivers and the same factors still hold, though I still think about tubes.

P.S. Why is the poll so weird? Well, somehow, even wiping cookies, the site wouldn't let me post the thread without it.

 

If I only listened to heavy music I might go with SS—might. Sometimes that sort of music can get too mushy. That's about 10% of what I listen to, though, and having some element of acoustic suspension in the driver array helps mitigate this issue.

 

Are you kidding? If it doesn't glow, it doesn't go.

 

Not me. I’d still be running vintage and single ended tube gear if it were not for practical reasons like space, and ease of use issues but I must admit that the active speakers I’ve been auditioning are really quite impressive. Still once I get my speakers and space sorted out I think I’m going to go with a tube phono pre to add some of that goodness.

 

I like to toast marshmallows while listening.

 

I have 47 tubes in my main system and it can be a pain in the ass to troubleshoot and maintain sometimes, making me occasionally consider SS options. But nope, never thought of giving any of it up because of sound. Listening to Cassandra Wilson's Love is Blind while I type this and can't imagine not having tubes.

 

Same here, I usually switch of the tube in my preamp (schiit saga) when I listen to some metal/hardrock as I prefer a 'dry' sound for that kind of music.

 

There's nothing like tubes in the world of guitarists, excepting a few. There's something about a vintage Ampeg SVT with its sextet of 6550's pulsing a full 300 watts of ultraviolet into 2 ohms.

 

I used to be all-tube, but now I'm only tube on the front end. Power Amps are solid state. I may go hybrid someday, with all-tube voltage gain and then solid state outputs only, but I build all my own tube gear and have not made up my mind to do that yet. I switched to solid state due to heat, not sound.

 

Never!
After a long day of work at the grist mill I like nothing better than to grab a cold beverage from the ice box and spin some 78s on my vacuum tube system while the wife heats water on the coal stove for my bath.

 

I comprised. Two 12AU7's in my BHK Signature preamp, solid state Benchmark amp.

 

I ran a 1961 H.H. Scott 299c for decades. A great, classic integrated amp, but not enough power to drive my B&W's. Now, I've got a 300w class AB solid state amp out of necessity. The rest of my system is digital anyway, so it's fine. To get the equivalent power out of tube amps would not be in my budget.

 

I invariably prefer a SS over Tube for the same price bracket..i have found sensibly priced tube amps to be decidedly 'one note' in the lower registers.Never heard a really expensive tube amp so cannot comment on their qualities.

 

I think the tubes vs SS thing is a bit misleading, it’s not an all or nothing deal. I was running my Cornwall’s with a Fisher KX-200, It developed an issue that needed a repair and while it was out I came upon a MAC 4100 I couldn’t say no to. I thought the MAC sounded better so the Fisher never made it back into the rack. I don’t think that translates to tubes being worse than SS, it just means one amp was better than the other. I’m sure a pair of MC 30’s would likely sound better than the MAC as would any number of other tube amps.

For the most part I’ve found tubes have a sweeter midrange and SS has better bass detail. But again, every piece of equipment is it’s own thing and some do some things better than others. So I wouldn’t pick sides or be all or nothing in either direction. Both can sound great and both can sound crappy.

 

Though I continue to use SS power amps, I don’t ever see myself using anything other than a full or hybrid tube preamp. Having said that, a number of SS pres could temp me albeit at a dire cost (SST Ambrosia, DarTZeel NHB-18NS and the like). But, I wouldn’t be switching because I didn’t love the sound of tubes but rather just for the sake of hearing what those particular pres were about.

For guitar amps it’s tubes or die.

 

I tried tubes and switched back to SS.

Guitars sound best played thru tube amps, I'll not argue that one.

 

Just because a piece of equipment has tubes in it does not mean that it will sound good. However I do find that tubes are able to impart a certain degree of "magic" to the sound which one very rarely hears with SS.

What I don't like out of some (mostly vintage) tube gear are rolled-off-sounding highs and flabby bass. But I absolutely love it when a piece of tube equipment has a sweet midrange and a holographic soundstage. So I'm always trying to get the best of what tubes have to offer while at the same time attempting to minimizing their flaws.

I've been running tubes to one degree or another for over 38 years now. And every time that I have tried my system without tubes over the years I have found that after a month or two I'm bored with flat soundstage and sterile tonality of (most) SS gear.

 

I will. With a "depends" note. I've owned a few "decent" tube amps; Fender, Marshall, Vox, Traynor, maybe a couple of others. I could never get them right - usually because a good tube amp for guitar needs a large enough space to get them cranking just right. A lot of smaller clubs don't even like them now. Then I discovered the Roland Blues Cube Artists (with it's own tone module that kinda looks like a tube) and have never been happier with my tone. It's a platform amp; my cleans are very nice, the lower gain blues crunch is good. But both come alive with pedals, which I love. Fuzz face, muffs, tonebenders, overdrives, etc. Plus a great effects loop for delays/reverb/chorus, etc. The amp takes on the personality of what I want, not the other way around.

I'd still like a Fender Princeton '68, someday maybe I'll get one, but the BCA is just too good on its own. Also, not an inexpensive amp either, just really good. On another forum, an owner of a studio got me intrigues to this amp. He owns a ton of amps for his customers to use. If they don't specify, he usually chooses the BCA, and just dials in the right pedals for the sound the artist is looking for. More reliable, easier to dial in, no hassles of tubes.

That said, I'd like to try a tube amp in the future for my audio system, maybe a Prima Luna or Line Magnetic. Just need an appropriate budget.

 

They do.

Good description.

One was the right amp for the job, the other one wasn't.

The point here is that a system must be matched. Often, people use tube amps on speakers that are better reserved for SS amps.

I find that tube amps work their magic best with sensitive horn loaded speakers or similar.

Today, may people opt for towers and those are generally better off with higher powered SS amps.

 

I joined tubes because of sound.

 

I don't think anyone quits tubes due to the sound. Possibly the PITA factor but never the sound. Heck, why do you think people often pair a tube pre with a SS amp?...because tubes make SS sound better! It's like wrapping a beef tenderloin in bacon....bacon makes everything taste better. Personally I prefer to have my bacon wrapped in bacon

 

I use a tube preamp with my class A SS amps. I am VERY happy with the results. I know that part of what I like about the tubes is the distortion,and I find the soundstage wider and deeper than any pre I've had in my system. I realize that this is totally subjective. I'm not saying that tubes are the end all,be all,but to my ears today,they are. Of course that could change next week! Odd hobby we have here!

 

Is there any such thing as bad sex between anxious and willing partners? Bad sound?; I doubt it. Not exclusively anyway. If they got new speakers which were just not designed with any tube amp in mind, then yes, but you can't squarely blame the tubes for that. Technology evolves, and SS designs do deliver more power with lower noise into tougher loads. Maybe most importantly, they do it more affordably.

Tube gear died when the tubes died. People just bought them thar new-fangled SS amps that "everyone was raving about". It wasn't about sound but reliability.
-Bill

 

This is certainly true if one is playing around with flee power SET and SEP amps. However this does not really hold for moderate to higher-powered Push-Pull tube amps.

For example of the opposite scenario: Electrostatic speakers are notoriously difficult to drive as well as inefficient. And yet a higher-powered tube amp melded with electrostatic speakers can be a match made in heaven.

 

Haven't you heard the old saying, "Once you go tubes, you never go back"? Well, anyway, my ex-girlfriend told me something like that, and I certainly agree with it, as obviously every answer on here agrees too.