hurtyewh t1_ituio87 wrote on October 26, 2022 at 12:31 PM

Tubes certainly make a big difference in sound compared to solid state, but for me personally it's a negative one with the HD650 (not considering very high-end tube amps or hybrids that might be better). The tubes I've experience (Little Dot Mk3 and similar) added the missing bass, but made the sound really messy, boomy and technically weak. A preference thing for sure, but I hated it. Instead I do EQ to keep all the good and fix almost all the bad.

audiophile_lurker t1_itycqq8 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 5:14 AM

>The tubes I've experience (Little Dot Mk3 and similar) added the missing bass, but made the sound really messy, boomy and technically weak.

Ya, that matches my experience. Little Dot MK3, Darkvoice 336i - those are just not great amps. They change the sound by virtue of having high output impedance and copious distortion. Good tube amps tend to be hard to distinguish from solid state, which makes them kind of a moot point for a lot of folks.