tai fu wrote:
So is there any difference between using tube amps for listening to music
than solid state? I heard there were a bunch of double blind tests and
people could not tell the difference. I know there is a huge difference when
it comes to guitar amps because tubes distort differently than solid state,
but now we're talking about within the amp's headroom, is there a
difference?

This thread is going to burn into the ground yet again, but I'll get some
information in early.

Well designed amps are sonically transparent, regardless of the architecture,
when kept within their operating boundaries.

As a general rule, tube amps clip softly and transistors clip sharply, which
makes overdriven tube amps better sounding than overdriven transistor amps.
You clearly know this from guitar amps. However, the odds of clipping are
generally less in a transistor amp, because it's relatively easy to make a
monster hundreds-of-watts-per-channel transistor amp that will make your
ears bleed and your speakers fry before it clips.

Also, it's possible to design an amp so badly that it's not sonically
transparent. I'm aware of one high-end transistor amp that has done this,
and a few tube amps. I'm sure there are other ones out there.

If you have two amps that sound demonstrably different, then something is
wrong with one or both of them. Either there's clipping going on, or one
of them is not functioning properly (by fault or by design).

Keep the tubes for creating music, and the transistors for playback.

Colin