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From: KLUDGE@AGCB1.LARC.NASA.GOV
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Tubes or Transistors: The Matching Game
Message-ID: <8123@uwm.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 90 14:54:04 GMT
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Approved: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

I can feel the beginning of a religous war here.

- There is no reason for tube amps to be better than transistor amps.

- There is also no reason for transistor amps to be better than tube amps.

   You can't make generalizations like this, because you are comparing not
only different active devices, but completely different designs.  What you
can do is make statements like:

- Some tube amps sound better than some transistor amps.

- Some transistor amps sound better than other tube amps.

  Even this is not general enough.  My Citation I amp (tube) sounds fantastic
driving my Magnepans, but when I try to drive a friend's pair of Infinities,
it doesn't sound as good as his Rowland Research amp.  But on the other hand,
his amp sounds pretty limp driving my speakers, when compared with mine.

- Tube amps have output transformers.  This makes the output stage more
  isolated from the load.  They can drive very reactive loads without
  difficulty, and if equipped with the proper taps, can drive the very low
  impedance speakers that are becoming popular today with ease.

- Transistor amps have no output transformers.  Their bass response is
  usually much more solid because there is no transformer to roll it off.
  Also the overall distortion tends to be much less because the transformer
  nonlinearities are avoided.

(There are a few exceptions to this... transistor amps with transformers and 
 tube amps without them, which have their own tradeoffs).

Buy a tube amp.  Or buy a transistor amp.  I bought my amp because it was
very good and very cheap, and picked a pair of speakers to match it.  You
might want to do the opposite.  Just whatever you buy, make sure it sounds good.
--scott