tubeguy wrote:
"the barefoot sage" wrote in message
...

1. tube amps
2. harsh sounding amps that give me a headache (solid state)

Bull****.


You haven't heard the best. Silicon can rival thermionics today, and that's
not the way it used to be.

This is true. Some solid state amps are very good sounding. Most use
moderate amounts of NFB and simple circuits, relatively speaking.
Twenty years ago there were few if any first rate solid atate amps
commercally available, possibly excepting Threshold.

I love the sound of tubes, but a properly
designed transistor amp will run right along with the tubes today. I heard
this in the form of a Levinson setup- it was some symphony stuff I never
heard before, and I walked in on this setup with no expectations. The first
thing I noticed was that the orchestra was miked from above. I heard the
actual sound of being above the orchestra, hanging above it- the effect was
just mesmerizing. It was then that I realized that tubes and transistors
have to occupy the same landscape- that of extreme accuracy. The solid-state
amp I heard was so transparent, so melodical, so true-to-life, I was just
blown away.

Hopefully he's better at amp design than sex. (Levinson authored a sex
manual with his then-wife, Kim Cattrall: they broke up soon
thereafter.)

But tubes are awesome, never diss the vacuum. Transistors can hold their own
these days, if you are willing to pay for it. However I will always fall
back on my old Dyna ST70. There's something about it- can't put my fingeron
it but it is just nice. I don't have the means to acquire some Klipsch
corner horns or some radical plastic/fiberglass horn thing, but I will still
make time for the Dyna.

The stock Dyna is a truly godawful amp. Modded ones can sound halfway
decent, but the limiting factor is the relatively poor OPTs. It is
impossible to build a really good tube amp around Dyna iron. The better
UTC, Acro or Peerless iron, or properly cloned Marantz or Freed
designs, can be the heart of world class tube amps. I have heard good
things about some Tamura and Lars Lundahl designs but no personal
experience.

Klipschhorns and the junior versions (La Scalas and Belle Klipsches)
can be had reasonable if you look. The price has started going up
because people use the Klipsch lowers with other midrange and tweeters
to produce listenable speakers. You could build your own if you were a
good carpenter, I mean it has to be easier than a Riva boat or a Falco!