Hello,
I bumped into this comment allegedly from David Shaw, from Icon Audio, regarding their PS1 Signature Phono preamp (tube based).
I wanted maximum musical detail, but without emphasizing the imperfections through wear, clicks scratches etc. So I could listen through the vinyl medium, not to it!
It is well known that valve circuits are much more tolerant to overload, they recover much quicker and distort less than transistors. Therefore it follows that valves will deal with the massive transient spikes present in imperfect LPs better than transistors
https://iconaudio.com/ps1-mkii-all-valve-phono-stage-ps1-mkii
I am aware of the generalized opinion (in this forum, at least) that tube-based amplifiers are basically nonsense in terms of sonic quality because they add noise and distortion, and usually have pretty high output impedance which then may mess up the frequency response.
My question is, as per the thread title, do tubes make sense in phono preamps because, as Mr Shaw says, deal better with the imperfections of the vinyl medium?
I bumped into this comment allegedly from David Shaw, from Icon Audio, regarding their PS1 Signature Phono preamp (tube based).
I wanted maximum musical detail, but without emphasizing the imperfections through wear, clicks scratches etc. So I could listen through the vinyl medium, not to it!
It is well known that valve circuits are much more tolerant to overload, they recover much quicker and distort less than transistors. Therefore it follows that valves will deal with the massive transient spikes present in imperfect LPs better than transistors
https://iconaudio.com/ps1-mkii-all-valve-phono-stage-ps1-mkii
I am aware of the generalized opinion (in this forum, at least) that tube-based amplifiers are basically nonsense in terms of sonic quality because they add noise and distortion, and usually have pretty high output impedance which then may mess up the frequency response.
My question is, as per the thread title, do tubes make sense in phono preamps because, as Mr Shaw says, deal better with the imperfections of the vinyl medium?