RE: Vintage Audio Equipment
May 11, 2021 at 5:09 am
(This post was last modified: May 11, 2021 at 5:11 am by onlinebiker.)
(May 10, 2021 at 8:33 pm)popeyespappy Wrote:(May 10, 2021 at 6:46 pm)onlinebiker Wrote: You don' t NEED really old amplifiers - as long as they have tube finals.....
Tubes are superior in most respects EXCEPT electrical efficiency...
Solid state vs valve amplifiers is going to run to personnel preference every time. Most of us aren't going to be able to tell the difference between an $11,000 Miacintosh MC 1502 tub amp and a $5,000 Macintosh MC 152 solid state amp. You might like one better than the other though.
Amplifiers really have not progressed much in the last 100 years - EXCEPT - in terms of electrical efficiency. Those gains have been huge.
I had a good friend that was a genius electrical engineer. He gave me a pretty convincing demonatration (back when my ears were still good) of an ancient Altec tube amplifier vs a modern high end transistor using a early laserdisc. We really could not hear a difference. He was able to show me in/out measured distortion levels - and at higher power levels the tubes were much better...
FWIW
