This previous Wednesday I wrote about electrical guitarists and their endless love affair with tube amplifiers. The know-how dates again to the primary decade of the twentieth century, and tubes had been integral to the event of radio, tv, house/skilled audio, radar, phone networks, medical check devices, and early computer systems! The transistor was invented within the late Nineteen Forties, however widespread use was solely reached within the mid-Sixties. Transistors almost obliterated the tube house audio market within the ’70s, however audiophiles and guitar gamers by no means gave up on tubes. Tube gear sounds totally different, it is richer, hotter, extra full-bodied than transistor fashions. These amps are, for a similar output energy smaller, lighter, cooler working, and cheaper than tube amps. Even so, the recognition of tube amps stays sturdy.
A correctly designed transistor amp will all the time measure higher than the most effective tube amp, so transistors are positively extra “correct.” I settle for that, however devices and voices sound extra like themselves with tube electronics; life is stuffed with mysteries and a few issues cannot be simply defined. We like what we like.
I am positively not claiming that tube hi-fis all the time sound higher than transistor gear, that is removed from true. Matching tube amps with simpatico audio system is required to get the most effective sound, transistor amps are much less finicky about speaker matching.
Classic transistor gear does not maintain its worth in addition to selection tube stuff, and outdated CD, DVD, Blu-ray gamers and digital amps are, with uncommon exceptions, virtually nugatory. Nothing will get outdated quicker than new know-how, a 5 12 months outdated AV receiver is already outdated, however a effectively preserved 30 12 months outdated tube amp can nonetheless fetch a excessive worth on the used market.
Loads of audiophile tube gear is pricey, however there is no scarcity of reasonably priced tube amps to select from. The Bravo Audio V2 tube headphone amp sells for round $55, it is at present out of inventory, however I hope to get it in for evaluation quickly. I reviewed the still-available Jolida FX10 stereo built-in amp just a few years in the past, and it now sells for round $600.
American made tube amps from Audio Analysis, Cary Audio, Conrad-Johnson, Decware, Manley Labs, McIntosh, Rogue Audio, VTL, and Woo Audio are wanted right here and within the international audiophile market.
Do you personal a tube amp? Inform us all about it within the feedback.
