[TowerTalk] Tube vs Transistor

[Tom Rauch]

We took a "high end" tube stereo with low distortion and a
fair quality solid state stereo and did a blind test with a
few people who claimed they could hear the difference.

There wasn't the slightest indication anyone could tell any
difference. The minute we added distortion they called it
"better"!

I worked on a small tube type amplifier "designed" by a tube
lover, and it had horrible distortion caused by improper
resistor selection. It was very easy to see the distortion
on a scope, let alone measure it with distortion meters.

When I corrected the bias and load resistor values, a tube
audio guru had an absolute fit. He claimed I "ruined" the
fidelity and "warmth" of the amplifier. Restoring resistor
values so the tubes produced non-symmetrical waveforms
brought the "warmth" back into the sound.

Some people like distorted or non-linear audio.  Nothing
wrong with that. Let's just not paint it as being "cleaner".

73 Tom