On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 09:56:05 +0000, the highly esteemed Stewart Pinkerton
enlightened us with these pearls of wisdom:

On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 02:10:16 -0700, Greg Pierce
wrote:

On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 16:24:19 -0400, the highly esteemed Sugarite
enlightened us with these pearls of wisdom:

However I would discourage you from going without a tube preamp, which
offers a lot of the tube saturation coloration, a big part of the tube
sound. Having had so much fun swapping preamp tubes and customizing it
for
my tastes, I think it's daft to avoid that component. I'd be much more
inclined to have a tube preamp and solid state poweramp.


I'd rather hear what the artist(s) intended.

Please don't even start with that naive and over-debated point of view. You
going to buy a different stereo for each album? Or carry a variety of
studio monitors? Renovate your house to have a variety of sound rooms?

Furthermore, if you're a proponent of "absolute accuracy", what the hell are
you here for? There is no tube circuit that doesn't put some flavor on the
sound. Go join your misguided friends on the class A solid-state forums.

Tube saturation coloration? I love it when people don't have a clue what
they are talking about... :-(

Guess that makes you a narcisist. Ask any mastering engineer how tube
saturation affects sound.

Well, when I use a tube (or transistor for that matter) in anything other
than a guitar amplifier, I make damn sure that it doesn't saturate. If the
mastering engineer in question is using a tube stage which is designed
to saturate (and cause distortion), then that is an effect, NOT
amplification (and a very dubious practice, IMO). A true preamp should
NEVER run its amplifying devices anywhere near that point.

Actually, that's always been the reason that I *like* tube preamps,
because they generally have very high overload margins and get nowhere
*near* saturation! I've no idea where this clown has got hold of a
tube preamp which *typically* goes into saturation - maybe he runs it
off a PP3? :-)

Whats a PP3? insert puzzled look here

Anyway, saying tubes are "colored" is just like saying "all solid-state
sounds bad" - both statements are equally absurd and untrue.


To me, it sounds as though you believe that tubes intristically cause
coloration - a few minutes with a proper model and a SPICE simulator
will quickly set you straight. Better yet, listen to some correctly
designed and built gear...

Engineering excellence doesn't seem to be his bag...............
Obviously not. It sounds like he has experience with one of those tube
"preamps" designed to give that "tube sound". You know, the ones that
run a 12AX7 with 24V (or less) on the plate.....

--
Greg

--The software said it requires Win2000 or better, so I installed Linux.