Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Tube tied

Yup, that square wave looks like an overdriven solid state amp output, nice and flat on top and bottom - good enough to fry your tweeters.

Solid state amps, even those that do not sound very good, have better looking graphs than tube amps.

Some tube amps sound incredibly good, don't know how good their graphs look. Some tube amps sound like crap. A good tube amp reproduces music in a way that solid state amps can't - good SET amps just sound more musical, produce music which is more involving ... beautiful. JMO.

my dad used to have an old tube amp he got back in the 70's. he had it hooked up to some of those old square, solid speakers that had the wood, chain link design on the front. i cant remember the brands, but they were pretty high-end at the time.. anyway, that stereo used to just crank, and crank good. i used to love watching the tubes get hot in the back of the receiver and put that orange glow on the wall..

and with me playing guitar and being around a lot of diff head and stack speaker combos, i can say without a doubt that tube driven guitar stacks have a much deeper, smoother sound to them. its just much richer than the SS head combos.

now, with all that said, i dont know if i will ever even try a tube driven amp at this point for my HT.. i already have a good quality receiver(onkyo 701), and dont know how compatible a tube amp will be with it.. not to mention, its hard to justify the price for a good tube amp, and i would hate to pay it, and end up not liking it.

so basically, i am just confusing myself now. water is dry, and the sky is full of dead birds.. doenst make sunse, huh?

bigjohn

Pablo Check out this amp if you are intrested in tubes.Its Cayin Ta 30 35 watts per channel and only $699.00.It has gotten some good feedback from customers and good reviews.I myself use an ss amp for my M80's Rotel RB1080.

Here's a very positive review of the Cayin TA 30:

http://www.goodsound.com/equipment/cayin_ta_30.htm

Their mosfet solid state pure class A amp also has good reviews.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_1/cayin-265ai-integrated-amplifier-3-2004.html

I think thats the way I'm going to go if and when the kids ever move out.I will use the extra bed room for a tube set up.The daughter is 20 now so maybe in 10 years or so.I forgot to tell ya the website its www.Cayinusa.com

Anyone who wants to try tube monoblocks which are very compatible with the Axiom M3Ti should think of the Antique Sound Labs WAV8s which go for about $100 each.



Review: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0302/aslwave8.htm

Here's a good review of the Axiom M2 speaker and ASL AQ1003DT amp: http://www.goodsound.com/equipment/axiom_m2i_ep125.htm

But when you add the cost of their lowest cost Pre the LH01 at $399.00 then you are at $599.00 for $100.00 more the Cayin gives you more than 4x the power.Just a thought.

Thanks for all the responses...considering my fairly unconventionally "purist" leanings would love to embark upon a tubes vs ss test (if I could afford). Maybe even w/vinyl (which, when properly recorded to my uneducated ear still sounds better vs cd's). To afford the indulgence, I might have to introduce my daughters to someone named Gates, Dell, or Buffet (though thx to links from 2x6 and wid might be actually be able to afford w/out having the right 6 Lotto number / or an arranged marriage)...seems a bit much just for me to get tasty sounds. thx to all.. to be continued...

Pablo, this has been discussed a few times previously here, and you can do a search if you'd care to. Some tube amps can cause a different sound some of the time, but different here is not "improved", assuming that the object is accurate reproduction. A well-designed tube amp operating within its limits will sound identical to a solid state amp so operating. An illustration of this was the Stereo Review double-blind amp test years ago where among the results was an inability to detect a difference between a solid state receiver and a pair of tube amps(except for the $200/$6,000 price difference).

Where certain tube designs can cause a difference is due to a very high output impedance in such designs, which can result in uneven frequency response as the amp output "follows" the speaker's swings in impedance. A second effect is the 2nd order harmonic distortion when overdriven that some such amps offer as a feature. One of the more interesting discussions of these differences is in this article on John Murphy. Although tube enthusiasts attempt to attach attractive adjectives such as "sweet" or "warm" to these problem areas, an amplifier should be an amplifier, not a musical instrument. Again, if accurate reproduction is the object, you've already got it and obsolescent tube technology has nothing to offer to you.

John, have you listened to any good tube amps, or are you just repeating what some electro-geek said?