Dan Dare Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 8 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said: While valves have their place in instrument amps it's not due to how they sound when driven clean but how they sound when driven dirty. For those who think valves are superior for stereo/HT watch this starting at the 3:20 marker. It wouldn't hurt to watch all of it, for that matter. I watched that last time you posted it, Bill. The speakers are articulate and well informed, but talking about music and music reproduction isn't the same as listening to music. Rational argument only gets us so far. I'm not advocating for magic or weirdness, but valves/tubes do have something to offer (imho, of course) for stereo/hi-fi use that other devices don't seem to have. I have heard some astonishing systems in my time. They weren't perfect and some even had flaws - a set of single ended, low powered vale amps, driving horn loaded speakers that I heard once, for example, had a noticeable midrange honk, BUT I have never heard the human voice reproduced quite as well or convincingly. Perhaps it's due to the fact that we cannot measure everything that is important to music reproduction (and probably that we don't know what it all is, yet - human knowledge is still pitifully limited, after all). And of course, you don't drive valves into distortion for stereo type of listening. You need to use a powerful enough amplifier (think 300Bs, rather than EL84s) to avoid that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fitzmaurice Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dan Dare said: Perhaps it's due to the fact that we cannot measure everything that is important to music reproduction (and probably that we don't know what it all is, yet - human knowledge is still pitifully limited, after all. I see that view expressed often, but never by audio engineers. You know, the people who invented music reproduction. What is important to music reproduction is well known and has been for quite some time. What we can measure exceeds what we're able to hear by at least two magnitudes of order. It's not our knowledge that's limited, it's the dissemination of that knowledge to the masses. For outfits like Wilson that's a good thing, otherwise they'd never sell a single piece. Edited April 16, 2018 by Bill Fitzmaurice 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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