A very different thing in a guitar amp. There, the preamp tubes, power tubes, power supply and speaker are all an extension of the electric guitar, much in the same way a bell mute does to a brass instrument.
If our goal in playback is pure reproduction of the recorded signal with as little distortion of that signal as possible (either linear or non-linear), then solid state is where it's at. The likes of Sansui & Yamaha had that pretty much sealed by the early 80s.
If you like the look and/or sound of tubes, that's perfectly fine. They do look hella cool and that can be enough, but we ought not kid ourselves that a tube playback stage is a step toward greater accuracy. Very, very, few are.
GeckoDeLimon t1_ja0le9y wrote
Reply to comment by SarcasticOptimist in Ouch by PharaoRamsesII
A very different thing in a guitar amp. There, the preamp tubes, power tubes, power supply and speaker are all an extension of the electric guitar, much in the same way a bell mute does to a brass instrument.
If our goal in playback is pure reproduction of the recorded signal with as little distortion of that signal as possible (either linear or non-linear), then solid state is where it's at. The likes of Sansui & Yamaha had that pretty much sealed by the early 80s.
If you like the look and/or sound of tubes, that's perfectly fine. They do look hella cool and that can be enough, but we ought not kid ourselves that a tube playback stage is a step toward greater accuracy. Very, very, few are.