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FAQ answers

Q1. Why tube sounds better ?

Ans :

There are several main reasons that makes tubes sounds better , the following list out those points,

1. Tube is a much more linear device than transistor during operation.

2. Due to the high non-linearity , conventional transistor amplifier must have very heavy NFB (negative feedback ) to make it work stable, but most of the tube amplifier can work well with very little or even no NFB, and heavy NFB is well known today as one of the main reason of muddy sound quality, shrinking the openness and depth of the sound stage as well as cutting the harmonics and airy components of a musical instrument. And NFB might create another form of distortion call TIM (total intermodulation distortion) , which is only detectable when more than one single tone of test signal being tested (more close to real musical reproductions conditions) , so a low THD amplifier might have a very high TIM, and TIM is the main musicality killer , which we try every effort to avoid. If you buy an amplifier by just looking at the specifications, then over 80% chances, you will not get a very good sounding amplifier, it is because usually the better the specifications, the more solid-state devices and more feedback needed to put into the circuit to achieve this end result, but in return you will sacrify part of the sound quality and musicality.

3. Tube is a totally mechanical device, inside a tube is just some metal plate arrangements, the effective operation area is much much larger than a semiconductor (typically 100,000 - 1,000,000 times larger). When music signal pass through a very small area, it will implies certain squeeze feeling to the signal itself and it is very noticeable by our ear, so when a signal just pass through a circuit compose of transistors, you will immediate sense the compressed , flattened and hardened feeling from the music. Most of the cases, the more the transistors in the circuit, the lesser the easiness , and more flatness and hardness to the music. On the other hands, if your music need hardness and brightness, such as hard rock and dance music, transistor definite have their advantages of tigher and punchier bass. So if you want something bridge the full music spectrum, then hybrid is one of the very good solution.

4. Tube-amp has higher THD (total harmonic distortion) than transistor-amp by testing, but those THD created by tube-amp are mostly even harmonics which is very pleasant to ear and will not feel disturbing unless it is > 12% (proven test by actual experiment conducted by scientist) . But transistor-amp gives out odd harmonic distortions which is highly un-pleasant to human ear, by actual experiment, just 0.1-0.2% of odd harmonic distortion is very noticable and will create very un-pleasant feelings even to un-trained ear. We might actually need those harmonics generated by tubes , it is because during the recording process, a lot of valuable harmonic information has been cut due to limited bandwidth during the sampling, and pass thru a lot of mixer board and equalizers, so the naturalness of those musical instruments will be degraded, lucky those harmonics generated by tubes will compensate large portion of those lost information. That is another reason why tube gear always sound more natural and pleasant, it is just simply more close to a real musical instrument or human voice (both are rich in even harmonics).   

information posted by www.space-tech-lab.com

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