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Interesting theoretical question

4/19/2003 1:36 PM
R.G.	Interesting theoretical question Let's play thought experiments, with just a bit of an excursion into existentialism. There are a lot of people who can tell the difference between a tube amp and a solid state amp by listening to the amps live, right? OK, can those same people tell the difference between a well executed CD recording of a tube amp versus a same-conditions recording of a solid state amp played on high accuracy reproduction equipment? (and ... can you?) The answer ought to be still yes, right? That's how we hear the majority of our tube amp music, on radio or on a stereo. If the answer is no, then we can blame the solid state demons for ringing the tone out of a righteous tube recording to leave it a burned out husk of its former self, indistinguishable from the soulless solid state amp. Passing through a solid state power amp and all of the rest of the reproduction chain has sucked the life out of it. (Some people believe this, by the way.) If the answer is yes, what makes it yes? What makes a tube amps recorded sound like a tube amp when it's all bits on a CD, played through digital recovery circuits, analog conversion, and solid state amplification? No tube/transformer/speaker interaction here. Just razor-sharp solid state accuracy. How can we still tell? And the obvious questions: - if we can still tell, would solid state power amps work for some other way to make that same analog signal going into them? and the thousand others that follow.

4/19/2003 1:36 PM

R.G.

Interesting theoretical question

Let's play thought experiments, with just a bit of an excursion into existentialism.

There are a lot of people who can tell the difference between a tube amp and a solid state amp by listening to the amps live, right?

OK, can those same people tell the difference between a well executed CD **recording** of a tube amp versus a same-conditions recording of a solid state amp played on high accuracy reproduction equipment? (and ... can you?)

The answer ought to be still yes, right? That's how we hear the majority of our tube amp music, on radio or on a stereo.

If the answer is no, then we can blame the solid state demons for ringing the tone out of a righteous tube recording to leave it a burned out husk of its former self, indistinguishable from the soulless solid state amp. Passing through a solid state power amp and all of the rest of the reproduction chain has sucked the life out of it. (Some people believe this, by the way.)

If the answer is yes, what makes it yes? What makes a tube amps *recorded* sound like a tube amp when it's all bits on a CD, played through digital recovery circuits, analog conversion, and solid state amplification? No tube/transformer/speaker interaction here. Just razor-sharp solid state accuracy. How can we still tell?

And the obvious questions:
- if we can still tell, would solid state power amps work for some other way to make that same analog signal going into them?

and the thousand others that follow.

8-)

Replies:

KB Well I have my doubts that at certa... -- 4/19/2003 1:54 PM
tim There's more to the process of enjo... -- 4/19/2003 2:22 PM
Ray Ivers R.G.,Great topic! Speaking ... -- 4/19/2003 2:40 PM
Lee M. What constitutes "tone?" Is it jus... -- 4/19/2003 3:13 PM
LFOscalator Live, one can immediately tell the ... -- 4/19/2003 4:16 PM
Shea If the main differences between tub... -- 4/19/2003 8:13 PM
kg rg,imo, it always comes dow... -- 4/21/2003 4:24 PM
steveR further tangents -- 4/22/2003 7:21 PM