Tube vs Solid State Amplifiers

[Dismayed]

New England winters are cold. It's nice to have a tube headphone amp on my desk to double as a hand warmer.

 

[Hugo9000]

@Xulonn That amp looks really nice! I found this gorgeous pic with Shuguang 6P3P-J power tubes. <3 I love it haha! I doubt I'll buy one, but it's definitely eye candy for me, and what a marvelous price--I guess it could be purchased just as decor if it doesn't sound good lol. It would look beautiful with my old KEF XQ1s (much more sensitive than my LS50s, so probably workable for most listening with this tube amp, I'd imagine).

They're sitting in their original packaging in storage currently. I have too many speakers haha, not that I'll get rid of any of them. Out of my full XQ set, I'm just using the floorstanding XQ5s at the moment. I use the LS50s at my desk.

 

[Celty]

I have a Glenn OTL on order, but will probably be a long wait, the demand runs higher than the ability of Glenn to build them.. In the mean time I saw a used tube hybrid that I had seen some reviews of, and snagged it. It is the well reviewed Loxjie P20. Will arrive on Monday.

So naturally I had to read up on tube options, and discovered that the original Chinese tubes are Ok, but not optimal. I wound up ordering a pair of 6N3P-DR NOS tubes from a company in Russia (tubes-store.com). These are the milspec version of the 6N3P, so the higher quality variant. So how much is this little experiment costing?

Well the Loxjie P20 is selling on Amazon for $99.99 but buying used I paid $60.00 including shipping. The 6N3P-DR sold for $6.00 each, and shipping was $8.00 (hey it's Russia), so $20.00 even in total.

So I'll be in for $80.00. No, it's not the uber quality OTL custom tube amplifier that the Glenn is, but it should be fun, and introduce me to the tube amp world. Who knows, I may even keep it after my Glenn is done, it might make a cool little bedroom amp

Oh almost forgot, that one of the reasons I picked up this little amp was it's XLR inputs and output. Perfect, as that is how my cables are already setup.

 

[mhardy6647]

New England winters are cold. It's nice to have a tube headphone amp on my desk to double as a hand warmer.

heh. colder up here in the Connecticut River "Upper Valley" than in Bahsten
-- although the wind can be pretty brutal in the winter down there in The Hub of the Universe.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

Here's a little item I keep around just because it is a novelty. A Raspberry Pi with PI2Media 503HTA tube hat. It runs Volumio. It sounds pretty good. I just like the juxtaposition of new-tech and retro. I previously had Schitt Valhalla, but I sold when I bought the D90 and Atom amp in the back.

 

[Unclevanya]

I once owned a nice Luxman hybrid and a tubed Fisher integrated amp and a Fisher tuner. The tuner used nuvistors (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuvistor). I have enjoyed many tube amped systems but the cost and heat always puts me back on the path of transistors.

 

[Xyrium]

Tubes, FTW!!! Oh, you meant home audio...oops.

 

[Celty]

I received the (new to me) Loxjie P20, and was lucky I had already ordered an upgrade power supply for (1.5 amps vs, 5 amps) because as it turned out the amp was DOA and I was hoping the problem was the power supply. It was. The seller had been willing to refund, no problem, but I really wanted it to work out. My initial impressions were quite positive, it sounded pretty good when ABing against my Monolith 887.

Today, earlier than anticipated, the upgrade tubes arrived (6N3P-DR NOS from Russia). Brand new with no burn-in, they do make a difference. Gave the amp more authority on bass, and seems more detailed. I am impressed right now that this inexpensive tube amp can sound so good! It's a good pairing with the HD6XX, but the Auteurs seem to love this amp.

I now have $92.00 total invested in this little baby, and I truly cannot imagine getting anything better than I am experiencing right now in this price range. It feels like it is driving my Auteur's better than my Monolith 887. That is impressive. I need to do a lot more listening to be definitive about it, but heck, just that my first impressions are in this ballpark amazes me.

 

[majingotan]

I received the (new to me) Loxjie P20, and was lucky I had already ordered an upgrade power supply for (1.5 amps vs, 5 amps) because as it turned out the amp was DOA and I was hoping the problem was the power supply. It was. The seller had been willing to refund, no problem, but I really wanted it to work out. My initial impressions were quite positive, it sounded pretty good when ABing against my Monolith 887.

Today, earlier than anticipated, the upgrade tubes arrived (6N3P-DR NOS from Russia). Brand new with no burn-in, they do make a difference. Gave the amp more authority on bass, and seems more detailed. I am impressed right now that this inexpensive tube amp can sound so good! It's a good pairing with the HD6XX, but the Auteurs seem to love this amp.

I now have $92.00 total invested in this little baby, and I truly cannot imagine getting anything better than I am experiencing right now in this price range. It feels like it is driving my Auteur's better than my Monolith 887. That is impressive. I need to do a lot more listening to be definitive about it, but heck, just that my first impressions are in this ballpark amazes me.

More tube distortions definitely have more pleasing coloration subjectively. The NOS ones typically have more pleasing coloration/distortions than the current manufactured ones, and that's why I use the RCA 5692 Red Base NOS for my Saga tube preamp instead of the stock 6SN7 tube. In my case, if I want to critically listen to recordings or A/B something, I can simply turn the tube mode off for passive mode

 

[Wes]

"this tube is rich and melodic with an overall smoothness that can't be beat." $200

 

[majingotan]

"this tube is rich and melodic with an overall smoothness that can't be beat." $200

Lol at the audiophool description. It accentuates the bass and mid-frequencies in a nonlinear way (~50Hz -4 KHz) by a fair margin making it sound larger in my case I guess that can loosely translate to that quote. Yes, it does cost $200 as it's a rare tube these days

 

[JDragon]

For a very long time I was considering the don sachs amplifier. http://www.dsachsconsulting.com/custom kt88 tube amp.html
then for a while I was considering the bob carver 275 https://www.bobcarvercorp.com/copy-of-crimson-raven

then I realized I don't care or need any of this and my $300 chip amp from akitika is plenty of power, 50wpc into 8ohms, 70w into 4ohms for my 5.5ohm minimum 94dB sensitive jbl's.

that being said I still want a new amp. just for the audio jewellery bling. so i'm considering a mcintosh mc275.

I own the Carver 275 and it looks great. The bottom end is noticeably thicker than my “reference” solid state ATI AT523NC amp but I don’t mind the extra distortion too much.

 

[mhardy6647]

somebody mention 5962s (EDIT: make that 5692s... jeepers , sorry!) ?
Westies closeup by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[Certainkindoffool]

For me there is a psychological aspect to it. When I power on the tube amp there are some additional considerations that make me a more dedicated listener. They take time to warm up. It's not good to turn them off and on so when they get turned on, I make sure to take a bit more time to listen. Because they glow, I almost always listen in the dark. Consequently, the music is a bit quieter and of a type that suits rhe music.

Tubes really do elevate my appreciation of music.

 

[majingotan]

somebody mention 5962s?
Westies closeup by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

First time I've seen a Westinghouse 5692 brand

Here's my close up take

 

[mhardy6647]

pretty sure they're nought but rebranded RCAs. They were the extremely kind gift of one of the local vacuum tube hifi gurus.
Knowing that - at the time - I was using 6SN7s as voltage amplifiers in my "Simple 2A3" amp, he said: You need these.



PS fixed my transposition in the original post

 

[Wes]

mea culpa - I own two tube pre-amps and like them both

(not saying Bob Carver can't do the same thing with MOSFETs)

 

[cjfrbw]

pretty sure they're nought but rebranded RCAs. They were the extremely kind gift of one of the local vacuum tube hifi gurus.
Knowing that - at the time - I was using 6SN7s as voltage amplifiers in my "Simple 2A3" amp, he said: You need these.



PS fixed my transposition in the original post

The labelling of tubes from this era was promiscuous. I have 6b4g tubes that are packaged and labelled 'International' 'Made in Italy' that are clearly Russian Svetlanas with the characteristic flying saucer getters. Svetlanas are lovely tubes, so no problemo, but it is kind of funny and a kind of conversation piece because of the labelling on the tubes.

I think all of the red based 5961 and 5962 tubes were made by RCA and re-branded. Also fantastic tubes.

I have a little tube amp that uses "compactron" double pentode tubes, which were ONLY made by GE at the end of the tube era. However, they are sold under the usual array of brand names, including Westinghouse, but they all have the GE etched logos on the top.

 

[mhardy6647]

"Brands" like International were rebranders (strictly rebranders, AFAIK) -- the up side of this is some "International" labeled tubes were (are) really good tubes. Even in 2020, it probably pays to check (i.e., if one happens upon an "International" tube in its box).

Similar to the Compactrons near the end of the vacuum tube age, the Loktal base tubes were mostly - if not all (??) - made by Sylvania (and/or, possibly, Philco???).

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/60s/63/Pop-1963-05.pdf (see page 45 of the magazine for an article on the family tree of vacuum tubes)

Oh, this might be a propitious time and place to mention EIA manufacturer codes. Generally speaking, at least in the US, OEM products like vacuum tubes (and speaker drivers!) bore a 2 or 3 number code that identified the manufacturer. Good lists of these codes are readily available in the information age.

Here's one of the best (i.e., most comprehensive):
http://www.audiophool.com/Misc/EIAcodes1961.pdf

 

[Sal1950]

I loved the sound of my VTL monoblocks driving Klipsch La Scalas! Had them paired together with a Chip McCormack full passive "preamp". Their 4 Russian 5881 output tubes where super durable, I had God knows how many hours on them, running for 20 years! The same tubes were in them when I sold them as when I bought them. Can't say to same for the 12AT7 driver and spliters. They would go noisey on me every so often. I kept a handful of them in stock at all times. LOL Talked to the buyer some quite some time later and he told me one output tube went Chernobyl on him taking out a fuse with it about 6 months after he got them but otherwise was still running the rest of them. Like me he checked the bias every few months but it remained stable. David Manley could design one hell of a "modern" tube amp, built to be as accurate as he knew how, until later years when he got drawn into triode switching to appease the market.

Tubes really do elevate my appreciation of music.

I can fully understand that.