Tech Corner > Tubes

Valves. The best sounding varieties of all time, vintage and new production

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stevenvalve:
First here is an interesting article    http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/tinyhistory1.html
Here is an exert.
Seventy years later, vacuum tubes, and especially triodes, continue to be the lowest distortion amplifying elements ever made. No germanium or silicon transistor, JFET, or MOSFET has ever approached the distortion performance of the direct-heated triodes, with indirect-heated triodes following closely behind. In addition to low distortion in the absolute sense, the distortion spectra of triodes is favorable, with a rapid fall-off of the upper harmonics. (This is less true for beam tetrodes, pentodes, or solid-state devices, which are intrinsically less linear and have higher-order distortion curves.)


If you ever want to put a solid-state designer on the spot, ask them which transistors were designed for high-fidelity audio applications ... and are they still on the market, ten or twenty years after they introduced? You can expect a long silence after this question - when a transistor model goes out of production, that's it. Don't expect to find stocks of obsolete transistors, and you can be very sure that nobody wants to collect them or use them in a vintage-sound product.

The sad fact is that solid-state devices have linearity well down on the list of design priorities, with feedback needed to clean up devices that were never primarily intended for audio. The automotive equivalent would be cars modified to use truck diesels ... OK for Soviet Russia maybe, but do you think you'd want to buy something like that if you had a choice? Yet this is the state of affairs in solid-state audio, with the electronic equivalent of an industrial diesel pressed into service in so-called "high-end" electronics.

stevenvalve:
We will list the greatest sounding valves and the brands for your tube components, and we will cover all valves types.  The ones to buy.
I will start with the EL34

bhobba:

--- Quote from: stevenvalve on May 11, 2012, 05:21:00 PM ---The sad fact is that solid-state devices have linearity well down on the list of design priorities, with feedback needed to clean up devices that were never primarily intended for audio. The automotive equivalent would be cars modified to use truck diesels ... OK for Soviet Russia maybe, but do you think you'd want to buy something like that if you had a choice? Yet this is the state of affairs in solid-state audio, with the electronic equivalent of an industrial diesel pressed into service in so-called "high-end" electronics.
--- End quote ---

True - very true.

Thanks
Bill

data:

--- Quote from: stevenvalve on May 11, 2012, 05:34:25 PM ---We will list the greatest sounding valves and the brands for your tube components, and we will cover all valves types.  The ones to buy.
I will start with the EL34

--- End quote ---
Very linear when run strapped, as I understand it.

That's why I like them :)

vitavoxdude:

--- Quote from: stevenvalve on May 11, 2012, 05:34:25 PM ---We will list the greatest sounding valves and the brands for your tube components, and we will cover all valves types.  The ones to buy.
I will start with the EL34

--- End quote ---
:D I look forward to this with considerable interest.  I'd imagine that multiple setups will be required to cover even the most popular valves let alone DHT types  ;)
I am thinking EL34, KT66, KT88, 6L6, EL84,6080 for the usual suspects and 845, 211 etc for the more interesting SET's; there are lots more but that little lot will be a pretty large job requiring considerable dedication.  Driver valves, rectifer valves oh oh oh this looks like a lifetimes work Steve.
V

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