Power Amp: Tube vs. Solid State

[chadds]

If your pre has some brass juevos then your power amp can be used just to amplify the goodness. For that application an SS power amp will do fine.

 

[CL400Peavey]

Hey hows it goin, I've got a Peavey Classic 400 too

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I've compared the tone and feel of several of my 300/400 watt tube power sections used to power my PA system...

I typically use solid state power amps for my PA, but I've experimented substituting the power-amp sections of my Mesa 400+, SVT-II (non-pro) and my Peavey Classic 400 by connecting my mixers output to the power-amps input (effects-return) of each of these bass amps.

I typically just run my bands vocals and kick drum through my PA... I noticed quite a big difference using each of these tube poweramps compared to my solid state poweramps, but byfar the biggest difference was when using my Peavey Classic 400. Even at similar volume levels, that poweramp added lots more fullness and a deeper heft to the vocals, and especially to the kick drum channel. That 8 x KT88 poweramp is one bad-a$$ hombre, it sounds and feels much deeper, its almost like I've suddenly added big subwoofers to to my PA.

(note, the eq-section/tone-knobs of all 3 of these tube powered bass amps were bypassed during all these experiments, so they weren't responsible for altering my results.)

So to sum this rather bizarre post up:
Yes, tube vs S/S poweramps can make a huge difference.
But what you like best is a matter of your personal preference.

Its important to not that part of what you are hearing with the CL 400 is the amp itself, not just "tubes". Properly biased the CL 400 puts out 400 watts, cleanly, at 40hz. Those huge transformers have a lower roll off than a lot of other amps.

 

[anderbass]

Its important to not that part of what you are hearing with the CL 400 is the amp itself, not just "tubes". Properly biased the CL 400 puts out 400 watts, cleanly, at 40hz. Those huge transformers have a lower roll off than a lot of other amps.

I agree, I never intend to claim the 3 different types of poweretubes used in these experiments were the only reason for my varying results. But thanks for pointing that out and helping to clarify that detail.

The circuit design in each of these 3 tube-powereamps all flavor the tone and feel in their own unique way, and that's whether I'm using them to power my PA, or when using the same external preamp to power my bass rig.

The feel and tone of most solid state poweramps might be fairly similar from model to model, but my experiments proved (to me) that this is not true of the 3 tube-poweramps I used.

 

[seamonkey]

Gain match amps when you compare them with your ears.
Ears are easy to fool. One amp being a little louder can sound better.

For SS, it's simple, you don't need a load on a SS amp to set the output voltage the same between amps.

For Tube, you need a load, You could use a power resistor to set the voltage, not a speaker though as with low damping the speaker the speakers back EMF will interfere with the reading.