ampage Tube Amps / Music Electronics	For current discussions, please visit Music Electronics Forum.

ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

previous: R.G. Let's play thought experiments, wit... -- 4/19/2003 1:36 PM

Re: Interesting theoretical question

4/21/2003 4:24 PM
kg	Re: Interesting theoretical question rg, imo, it always comes down to the grace under overload conditions. there's plenty of grey area. i think to really get into the extremes you've got to have golden ears. my ears are probably silver or even brass... not golden by any stretch, but i KNOW i can hear and discern things most cannot. others can hear things i cannot. points on a continuum... what satisfies one may not satisfy another. once you've entered the "recording" chain you're really trying hard NOT to overload the circuits. (sure there are times when the rec. eng. wants a certain effect, and thus intentionally overdrives a circuit, but once again this is an area where tubes are just about ALWAYS used.) so the issue is really a matter of location--sound generation or sound reproduction. i would take a superlative recording played on a mediocre solid state amplifier before a mediocre recording played on a superlative tube amplifier. can't polish the turds, right? over ALL of those i would take the superlative recording played through a superlative tube amp, of course! another thing i am acutely aware of is the presence of microphonics in tube circuits. not too many ss circuits that are discernably microphonic, yet ALL tube circuits are to a greater or lesser extent! i think the micros add a great deal of ambience and air to the outcome. again, this is preferably in the sound GENERATION stage, not reproduction. case in point: when i'm in my garage on the hot channel with the spls high you can CLEARLY hear a snare crack come out of the stack. i used to hate it, now i don't think i can live without it. jm2c. more later. ken

4/21/2003 4:24 PM

Re: Interesting theoretical question

rg,

imo, it always comes down to the grace under overload conditions.

there's plenty of grey area. i think to really get into the extremes you've got to have golden ears. my ears are probably silver or even brass... not golden by any stretch, but i KNOW i can hear and discern things most cannot. others can hear things i cannot. points on a continuum... what satisfies one may not satisfy another.

once you've entered the "recording" chain you're really trying hard NOT to overload the circuits. (sure there are times when the rec. eng. wants a certain effect, and thus intentionally overdrives a circuit, but once again this is an area where tubes are just about ALWAYS used.) so the issue is really a matter of location--sound generation or sound reproduction.

i would take a superlative recording played on a mediocre solid state amplifier before a mediocre recording played on a superlative tube amplifier. can't polish the turds, right?

over ALL of those i would take the superlative recording played through a superlative tube amp, of course!

another thing i am acutely aware of is the presence of microphonics in tube circuits. not too many ss circuits that are discernably microphonic, yet ALL tube circuits are to a greater or lesser extent! i think the micros add a great deal of ambience and air to the outcome. again, this is preferably in the sound GENERATION stage, not reproduction.

case in point: when i'm in my garage on the hot channel with the spls high you can CLEARLY hear a snare crack come out of the stack. i used to hate it, now i don't think i can live without it.

jm2c. more later.

ken

Replies:

stephen conner It's all psychology -- 4/21/2003 5:51 PM
r.g. Re: Interesting theoretical question -- 4/21/2003 7:54 PM
Glenn Hey kg, microphonics... -- 4/22/2003 7:48 AM