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It will come as no surprise that I am a huge tube amp/preamp fan. With a closet full of tubes ranging from dozens of rectifiers to dozens and dozens of input and output tubes, I thoroughly enjoy rolling tubes and the euphonic sonics delivered. To me, tubes still nail tonality. The sound of piano, guitar, even vocals, is more "natural", more "organic".
But are we seeing a turning point? Let's face it, tube amps had a 60 year head start on transistors. Many transistor amps in the 70's, 80's, 90's were just plain bad and no where near SOTA transistor amps today. Sure, there were some decent finds during those era's, but most were stinkers.
SOTA solid state amps today from Soulution, CH, Pass, Ayre, D'Agostino and many others have reached a new level of sonics giving many tube amps a run for their money.
But here is what I'm noticing: at the same time that solid state amps are reaching new sonic heights, speaker driver materials are becoming more exotic, and more specifically, stiffer. Carbon, ceramic, diamond, Graphene Nano-Tec, etc. All very stiff materials. I would argue that a lot of these exotic, stiff materials are less tube friendly. Whether you want to argue that it's damping factor or some other factor, it just seems to me that time and time again these SOTA speakers with stiff materials sound more controlled and frankly sound better with solid state.
I was speaking with a reviewer friend of mine, Richard Mak. He said to me that many of his friends in Asia have found the exact same thing: newer driver materials are stiffer and sound best with solid state.
Of course, this doesn't mean that these SOTA speakers don't sound great with tubes - of course they do....but do they ultimately sound better, more controlled, more "hand in glove" with Solid State?
But are we seeing a turning point? Let's face it, tube amps had a 60 year head start on transistors. Many transistor amps in the 70's, 80's, 90's were just plain bad and no where near SOTA transistor amps today. Sure, there were some decent finds during those era's, but most were stinkers.
SOTA solid state amps today from Soulution, CH, Pass, Ayre, D'Agostino and many others have reached a new level of sonics giving many tube amps a run for their money.
But here is what I'm noticing: at the same time that solid state amps are reaching new sonic heights, speaker driver materials are becoming more exotic, and more specifically, stiffer. Carbon, ceramic, diamond, Graphene Nano-Tec, etc. All very stiff materials. I would argue that a lot of these exotic, stiff materials are less tube friendly. Whether you want to argue that it's damping factor or some other factor, it just seems to me that time and time again these SOTA speakers with stiff materials sound more controlled and frankly sound better with solid state.
I was speaking with a reviewer friend of mine, Richard Mak. He said to me that many of his friends in Asia have found the exact same thing: newer driver materials are stiffer and sound best with solid state.
Of course, this doesn't mean that these SOTA speakers don't sound great with tubes - of course they do....but do they ultimately sound better, more controlled, more "hand in glove" with Solid State?
