"John Phillips" wrote in message
...
In article , Andy Evans
wrote:
Some discussion of voicing DIY tube amps:
snip

Interesting thread. I guess it illustrates how far away valve/tube
amplifiers still are from the ideal of just being "an amplifier."
Show me two amplifiers that (really do) sound different and I'll show
you *at least* one which is not behaving as ideally it should.

**Not necessarily. You could be listening to an amplifier which is connected
to a load, which is not quite what the manufacturer has specified that it
is.


Loudspeakers, imperfect mechanical transducers that they are, are like
that still. I suspect the same is true of vinyl and vinyl reproduction
kit (but I have no recent experience).

**A reasonable vinyl system, except for S/N, is very hard to pick from 16/44
digital. On a purely technical basis, a really good vinyl system can
outperform a 16/44 digital one, in a couple of areas.


However, my own view is that for some time the state of the art in other
audio components (including cables) is such that ideality is the right
and obvious goal to be approached. Naturally, if anyone still wants to
select or tweak an amplfier to tune the "voice" of his/her audio systems
then that's fine by me. After all the object is one of enjoying the
result (and/or the tweaking process).

Indeed, if valve/tube amplifiers did all sound the same then a few in the
audio industry would be out of a job since the amount of money coming
into that sector would drop significantly. So the preservation of a
"voicing" sector through the mutual interests of producers and consumers
seems inevitable.

**Ironically, REALLY good valve amps (ARC VT100, VT150, et al) sound so
similar to really good SS amps, that it is very difficult o pick them apart.
It is REALLY easy to pick a cheap, crappy valve amp from a good SS amp,
however. That should tell us something.


--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au