What seamonkey fails to realize because he's never touched a tube amp in his life is that there is a HUGE difference between RECORDING with a tube amp and PLAYING on a tube amp.
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ESP MusicCord listening test Part 2!
- Thread starter bongomania
- Start date
billfitzmaurice
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When run perfectly 'clean' that's true. If you're running a tube amp perfectly clean you might as well have SS. But the percentage of tube users who do is quite small. And you certainly can't tell the difference from a clip, because you can't hear the dynamics of tubes in a clip. The only dynamics you hear are those of your PC.
Sorry Bill, I disagree. I like the sound of clean tubes better than clean SS, too. The differences are less exaggerated, but I can tell the difference when playing.
billfitzmaurice
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That just means you haven't heard clean tubes, which is understandable, as that's not what instrument amps are about. My comment would be more appropriate comparing high end power amps run well within their linear range.
It's funny...I often run my SVT and think, "That's the cleanest sounding amp I ever heard." How much dirt can it have when you don't run it any louder than a B-15? And I mean that in literal terms, not rhetorical.
Not to take BFM's side.....but MI amps, even the Original SVT was not built for low IM and harmonic distortion. Even McIntosh could not match the low distortion specs of modern SS. Sansui (SS) was the final blow to McIntosh (and the older Marantz).
That being said, the inherant distortion in tube amps is more pleasing to most than the "clean" of SS? Personal preference.
That being said, the inherant distortion in tube amps is more pleasing to most than the "clean" of SS? Personal preference.
By way of example, very often people will add a high-quality preamp or compressor to their chain and say "it just improves the sound so much, it's so clean and transparent!" ...Not realizing the contradiction in those statements. My favorite gain stages are like that--on the one hand they sound super clean and clear, yet otoh they make a huge improvement to my tone, meaning by definition they are not in fact transparent. And if any compression is occurring, whether subtle or obvious, that too is a type of distortion.
Man, I'd really like to know what kind of THD levels it puts out at that low a volume, though. Can't be much at all. I know it can be there and I just might not be hearing it, but I really don't hear it at all.
Oh, and an SVT at that level sounds completely uncompressed to my ears, too. I agree that calling a compressor "transparent" is silly, but it can also mean not set near-flat, and I wouldn't think that would add distortion in and of itself.
Your ears are trained to the tube amp sound (not bad thing understand). You are hearing what you are trained to hear. I've played bass through a McIntosh MC60 with Gold Lions, did not sound like an SVT at low volume (and you would probably not like it).
i use a mcintosh 275 with 1950's metal based gold lion kt88's at home, i think it sounds great. i wonder how an svt would sound reproducing music, i should try that out.
I thought is was like butter as well, not like the sound of an SVT or B15. I personally liked it better, but I also play SS power amps now
You have to tweak knobs to get the response right and you need the right cab, but I've done it and it sounds cool!
billfitzmaurice
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A lot. THD means Total Harmonic Distortion, and that refers to any alteration of the signal, including that added by pre-voicing, EQ and compression. It has nothing to do with audible 'distortion' as in clipping, though when clipping is present the THD skyrockets.
Well if we're going by the "bzzzzzz" kind of distortion, I swear to you that I genuinely believe the non-pushed SVT to be the world's cleanest amp.
The exact point is that we are not, and never were, talking about the "bzzz" type of distortion.
Sorry Jimmy, the worlds cleanest tube amp to date is this one
That is the Lab version of the 350.
