the tube sound
mulester7 said:
.....HiFi, please tell me what you heard that was different in the mids and highs using the tubed Mac pre-amps....you have experienced McIntosh from stem to stern, please try to describe this "warmth" thing....
please keep in mind my descripion's only apply to 2 channel & not home theater , with no processor's in the loop & true full range paper cone speaker's with no sub,i have never tested tube preaplification vs solid state preamplification for home theater.
the difference's between solid state preamplification & tube preamplification are subtle but they are there, solid state pre's overall sound have more impact in the bass region over a tube pre,a tube pre tend's to present the bass in a more mello less dramatic way & with less impact.
the presentation in the mid's with a solid state pre tend to reinforce the bass where the mid's using a tube pre are more seperated & easier to hear & dont reinforce the bass,this may be caused by the weaker bass slam in the tube pre allowing more mid's to be cleanly heard.
the high's with a solid state pre are more accurate over a tube pre with a stronger sound over the tube pre,some guy's think the high's with solid state pre's are too harsh & refer to this as being "too bright" while the high's with a tube pre have a little less edge or bite to them creating a warmer sound.
the overall difference's are that a solid state preamp is more dynamic with a stronger sound,when i use strong & dynamic as example's im not refering to spl's but rather the impact the music has on the listener,im also using the catch word dynamic to describe how you can feel the music in your chest with a solid state preamp more than that of a tube preamp.
the overall presentation with a tube preamp is best described as a more mellow sound with the mid's & high's being cleaner sounding with the high's being less harsh on thing's like guitar solo's & female vocal's with the mid's being more up front in the total sound as oposed to being right in the middle with a solid state pre.
the last tube preamp that i was running was the mcintosh c-2200,when i would compare the sound with the c-39 solid state preamp that im currently running i would alway's feel as if something was missing from the bass,at high listening level's the music had less direct impact on me making the sound feel less dynamic,not a bad sound but for high impact rock music or heavy blues i felt something was missing that i could not get dialed in with tone control's,the solid state preamp was a better performer with rock & heavy blues.
running the same comparison's in the rig i found that for jazz music or accoustic instramental music i much prefered the sound of the c-2200 tube preamp over the c39 solid state,the tube preamp presented the music in a softer more refined way,thinner bass response,more defined midrange,softer high's,closer to the sound from a live music experience over the solid state.
the difference's in sound that i described are alot of the reason that people biamp using solid state amp's for the woofer's & tube amp's to drive the mid's & high's,kind of a best of both world's deal.
a good way to experience the tube sound without breaking the bank is to insert a tube buffer in the chain between your cd player & the preamp or reciever,cary audio used to make 2 different model's & musical fidelity still makes them,both are very reasonable in price,i prefered the cary over the musical fidelity.
the cary audio model # is CAD 5500,one version of the cad 5500 can also be used as a preamp as it has balance control & volume control,the other version of the cad 5500 has no control's at all & cary call's it "the black box" but both model #'s are the same,the musical fidelity model # is x-10.
the difference's are easily heard with a tube buffer in the loop,i ran the cary in my rig for several year's with the cary on one cd player for the mellowness of tube's & the other cd player with nothing in between for more punch,below is a pic of the rig i ran the cary in to illustrate how i exploited the difference's,i had a custom face plate made for the cary,if you look close it say's mcintosh in bold gold lettering but it's the cary cad 5500(black box) with a custom glass face,the rig in the link is the same system used for all the comparison's i described above.
cary cad 5500
http://mcintoshlaboratory.tripod.com/gal/p/sysi.jpg
the model from musical fidelty is the x-10.
http://www.musicalfidelity.com/mf/en/Products/SmallX
i hope i explained the difference's well enough but in the end there's no substitute for experiencing the difference in your rig with a sound that your used to & comfortable with,maybee kgturner will chime in,being that he is running a tube preamp he might be able to explain further or correct some of my description's.
have a good evening.
