AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - Some Very Important and Cogent Observations

wrote:

RELATIONSHIP OF FACTORS AND FINDINGS
The basic cause of the difference in tube and transistor sound is the
weighting of harmonic distortion components in the amplifier's overload
region.

Transistor amplifiers exhibit a strong component of third harmonic
distortion when driven into overload.............

Solution: get a solid-state amp that is powerful enough to
not clip during the loudest passages you would listen to. SS
power is cheap, so this is no big deal.

(snips)

Vacuum-tube amplifiers differ from transistor and operational
amplifiers because they can be operated in the overload region without
adding objectionable distortion.

The upshot: forget tubes and get a solid-state amp that is
powerful enough to not clip during the loudest passages you
would listen to. SS power is cheap, so this is no big deal.

I am not the author of this, this is (an excerpt of) the legendary
Russell O. Hamm paper. People like Arny and Randy Slone get fits
reading this buit it is factual, has been demonstrated, and can be
repeatably duplicated. The fact that the phonograph has been
substantially supplanted by CD, DVD and SACD players and by HDD and RAM
based digital music systems does not radically alter these conclusions.

And one big conclusion would be to simply obtain a
solid-state amp that does not clip during loud passages.
Since SS amp power is cheap, the advantages of tube amps are
not advantages at all.

Howard Ferstler