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> Vacuum-tube amplifiers are not in the same class with techniques that are unlikely to have any perceptible influence on what you hear. Yes, they are. The Car
by Animats 5mo ago
> Vacuum-tube amplifiers are not in the same class with techniques that are unlikely to have any perceptible influence on what you hear.
Yes, they are. The Carver Silver 7 was built to demonstrate this. [1]
It's a tube amplifier with 38 tubes per channel that costs $17,000.
It has all the important features - weighs 68Kg, vibration damping mounts,
takes four minutes to power up, and the wiring is silver.
Gets good reviews from the High End crowd.
Then Carver built the Silver 7 T, a transistorized amp with the same transfer function. As a demo, the Silver 7 and the Silver 7 T can have their outputs differenced, or wired up to cancel and drive a silent speaker. Same output. Gets terrible reviews.
[1] https://hometechnologyreview.com/CARVER-SILVER-SEVEN-MONO-VACUUM-TUBE-POWER-AMPLIFIER-REVIEWED/ https://hometechnologyreview.com/CARVER-SILVER-SEVEN-MONO-VA...
- adrian_b 5mo agoThis is exactly what I have already said. Typical transistor-based audio amplifiers are different enough from traditional vacuum-tube amplifiers, but when the cost does not matter it is possible to design transistor-based amplifiers that are equivalent with vacuum-tube amplifiers. The example given by you shows that there are indeed many people who do not truly perceive the differences or non-differences, so they judge based on prejudices. Of course, I agree that there are many such people and the gold-plated cables were intended for them. I agree that they must exist also among the customers buying vacuum-tube amplifiers.