Tubes vs. solid state amplifiers
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- psaudio.com
What makes a speaker good for a tube amplifier and, as a secondary question, what are the 4Ω and 8Ω settings on the back of tube amplifiers for? Have a question you want to ask Paul?
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I plan a few surprises for early adopters, so go to www.paulmcgowa... and add your name to the list of interested readers. There's an entire gallery of never before seen photos too.
I think the random injection of synth should remain throughout this video series 😂
yes !
I have one of those solid state McIntosh too. I think Paul is speaking of cases in general. The autoformer in McIntosh is done to allow the transitors to work in less stress of having to give a lot of current. It is McIntosh’s way to keep the solid state at ease by what the company does well with tube designs. It is a special case.
Accuphase....
I'd like to flip your answer around a bit. Rather than just finding a speaker that is high sensitivity, some people may prefer the sound of tubes, so they're looking for an efficient speaker.
The mentioned 11 Ohms loudspeakers should be LS3/5A (a BBC monitor years ago).
Yup, or 15 Ohms also I think.
Get down on it Paul. Think I heard some Edgar Winter up in there!
Your videos are fun, thanks for doing these
Years ago I found the 4 ohm tap on a tube amp was the best sounding as most speakers dip down below 8 ohms. I have heard a number of tube amps with decent bass even though they didn't have a high damping factor. Tube amps clip nicer too.
I think that, opposite of what is done with solid state amplifiers, you can connect a lower impedance speaker than normal with no problems (well, a bit higher distortion and lower power), but you should not connect a speaker that has too high impedance.
A tube amplifier with shorted output usually will not be damaged, but a tube amplifier with no load connected may be damaged.
This is, of course, opposite of what should be done with solid state amps - solid state amp with no load (or higher impedance speakers) will work OK, but with shorted output (or too low impedance speakers) may be damaged.
11ohm is still close to 8 ohm, so I would not expect a problem there.
I have a pair of Cary SLAM monoblocks (fitted with KT120s) driving B&W 801 Matrix II speakers and one thing that's not diminished is bass. If it's in the recording it's in the presentation. Telarc's 'Rite of Spring' on vinyl as well as the 'Pines of Rome' on MFSL both shake the house --- whether it's full force (fff) or quiet (ppp) you'll feel every drop of low frequency weight. And my preamp is fully tubed, being a PrimaLuna EVO 300.
Thanks for explaining the reasons for a power tube amp's frequency response again!
And I thought Keith Emerson was deceased!
Won't electrons be controlled more accurately and nimbly in a vacuum vs in a crystal?
4 and 8 ohm taps are also used on solid state McIntosh Amps. These are solid state amps have output transformers. Still one of the finest sounding amps ever made. (No I don't own one...)
Back in the PNP Germanium era this was quite common...
And if you are adventurous you can toss the autoformer all together and just run the amp raw dog into your speakers.
so... is this why Pre-Amplifier are Popular in TUBE use of old?
to fine tune the amps nature and get a better balance between the top and bottoms?
Well tubes make a lot of micro shattering in, it's not a noise as some measurement freaks like to call it. In general it sounds more organic and a tad warm usually. So in order to really hear & feel that you need speakers with more sensitive & vibrant cones and tad on the bright side. Those are by no surprise on the more sensitive side & easier to drive but that doesn't mean that they have to be lo power, actually bigger diameter is they are more powerful & sensitive. They do have less power for their size compared to those with more stiff cones (armoured or Aluminium). At the end for price/efficiency reason's especially this day's it's recommended to go with only a tube pre amplifier (with really quality tubes).
Micro shattering ??
@@poserwanabe Yes it basically has it's buzz which by all means need to be kept under control. That's why for instance tube headphone amplifiers aren't for headphones with impedance lower than 64 Ohms & why XLR output is highly recommended from tube pre amp to amp.
Paul... I thought you were breaking out "Birdland" by Weather Report/ Manhattan Transfer... wish you had stayed with it !!!!
11 is 16?
I just went tubes and will never go back
Haha! Your synth playing seemed to compliment the emotion of what you were saying, Paul. I doubt it meant to do that. lol
Also, some people just prefer the more mellow bass of a SET amp, but they can also deliver more than people would think, especially something like those NAT amps with tubes in em the size of street lamps like Mike from OCD HiFi Guy has shown. Man, those are killer amplifiers, but they’re also killer expensive too! 🎶🔊🙂
Would an active subwoofer lessen the loud on an amplifier ?
Big time
I absolutely LOVE the 900!
I have a pair of ZU Omens, Paul. 12 Ohm. Plenty of bass.
Yeah, but it's an even 12 Ohm, and that was what mattered😁
Max B. Simonsen Ah. Thanks for pointing that out
I just swapped out caps to ClarityCap 1uf 400v on my Omens yesterday, what a difference a great capacitor makes
Nice
Tubes operate best with a fixed load.
Since no speaker presents a truly fixed impedance, we can only hope to keep it as close as possible.
What most people don't realize is that output tubes want to see a load of several thousand ohms,
and the transformer turns ratio greatly multiplies the effects of a given speaker on the tubes.
As an example, let's say that a pair of one specific type of tube in a certain AB1 push-pull amplifier circuit
works best into a plate-to-plate impedance of exactly 3,872 ohms.
Making a transformer that accurately is not easy to do, so for manufacturing purposes
we specify a 3,900 ohm primary and live with the slightly variable results. That isn't too bad.
BUT
If an 8 ohm speaker is connected to the 4 ohm tap, the effective the load presented to the tubes will be about 7,800 ohms;
likewise, a 4 ohm speaker connected to the 8 ohm tap will cause the plate-to-plate load to be about 1,950 ohms.
From this it is easy to see that there is a problem:
The load on the secondary can push the actual primary impedance FAR off-target.
Either way, there might be a significant increase in distortion, and it might be Very audible.
This is the real reason why tube amplifiers usually have at least two output taps, and many have three.
(Some tube public-address amplifiers had 4, 8, and 16 ohm, plus 25 and 70 -volt taps.)
Technically, you could have a transformer secondary tapped in approximately 1-ohm increments,
but the required number of connections on the unit would be difficult to provide
and the cost of manufacture would be prohibitive.
Vintage U.S., Russian or Chinese tubes?
Haven't tried vintage US but Russian tubes are great, chinese depends on the brand
USSR TUBES RULE!
@@NiSHAN256 Have a pair on the way to me from Ukraine. Very curious about them.
Don't forget about n.o.s. German Telefunken tubes. I hear that they have started making the ECC83-TK (12AX7) again in Slovakia with cryogenic treatment in the U.S.A. as a new Black Diamond series. Tweaky tube rollers with deep pockets, rejoice! . . . B.t.w., how does one joice in the first place?
@@stephensmith3111 Rejoice was originally rejoyse which gives the game away. As a noun it means a cause of joy. As a verb it used to mean to enjoy a woman :-)
Horse and cart vs sports car.😂
Pretty much. Its the romantic smell of horse, tar stained wood and oiled leather, at a calm trot vs. fresh from factory smelling, merciless, V12 power and performance.
To quote Mike Oldfield (uh-oh, an old folky prog rock aficionado; run away, run for your lives and sanity!): "I like thunder and I like rain. And open fires and roaring flames. But when the thunder's in my brain, I'd rather be on horseback." -- "On Horseback" (1975). It's not always about hot laps at the Nurburgring Nordschleiffe.
@@stephensmith3111 What a fine album - _Ommadawn_
Ab yul ann idyad awt
En yab na log a toc na awd
Taw may on omma dawn ekyowl
Omma dawn ekyowl.
_On Horseback_ should really have been on the prior album _Hergest Ridge_ where Mike used to ride.
@@jonathansturm4163 And I always get an internal chuckle when considering that he starts what is essentially a children's song with "I like beer . . ."
Again
You Tube vs.
ICE State