Tube vs. Solid Amps 150-200 Watts........

[Cheapshot]

Could someone break down some of the advantages/disadvantages of tube amps vs. solid state amps (if theres even a difference in sound).

And if anyone knows of any good quality 150-200 Watt stereo amps for audio listening only (no HT) that they would recommend it would help me out alot. Thanks

 

[zumbo]

Read this:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17726

 

[~JC~]

I can only give you an opinion, not quote stats, but someone who is looking at tube amps is actually looking for opinions, not stats. Solid state amps strive to be extremely accurate in terms of reproducing the information fed to them. Tubes on the other hand, add a color, their own dimension, a warmth, a magic, if you believe, (a distortion, if you don't) to what you are hearing. Some guys that watch baseball think that the only players on the fied are the 2 teams. Theys like Solid state. Some guys think that the umpires are also a part of the play. They like tubes.

 

[highfihoney]

for the wattage your looking for tube amp's will be big $$$$ plus the type's of tube's used to produce such high wattage's in tube amp's are also extremely expensive not to mention requiring biasing of the tube's & unless you know what your doing you can get an extreme shock or worse.

tube amp's & solid state amp's are good at two entirely different thing's,solid state amp's excell on slam & dynamic's where as tube amp's excell at lower volume's & tend to have a more foward type sound that excell's in the mid's & high's,not very many tube amp's will give an accurate bass response when driven even with high effeciency speaker's.


tube amp's are more suited to low to medium volume listening with high rated speakers,like 98db & up,a well made & properly biased tube amp tend's to produce more accurate mid's & high's over a solid state amp at lower volume's & their bass response is more of a mid bass as oposed to a full bass,the more power you use from most tube amp's the less bass response you will get,after about 50% of the power is used from a tube amp the remaing wattage start's to become more distorted & will continue to produce more & more distortion due to the fact that they will continue to produce power even thru a full clip,tube amp's are also more likely to be affected by rfi interference over solid state amp's & also can be easily affected by an unclean power source or other devices with back ground noise on the same circut such as microwave's,refrigerator's,clock radios ect.

tube amp's work very well for biamping with a solid state amp driving the woofer's & tube's on top driving the mid's & high's .

solid state amp's on the other hand are generaly a cleaner more stable source of power & are able to reproduce a better bass response & handle transient's & high power burst's alot better thus creating a better sense of dynamic's.

choosing any amplifier is highly system dependant & before any quality reccomendation's can be given more info is needed.

1 budget.

2 associated gear.

3 listening level's.

4 music preference's.

 

[Cheapshot]

for the wattage your looking for tube amp's will be big $$$$ plus the type's of tube's used to produce such high wattage's in tube amp's are also extremely expensive not to mention requiring biasing of the tube's & unless you know what your doing you can get an extreme shock or worse.

tube amp's & solid state amp's are good at two entirely different thing's,solid state amp's excell on slam & dynamic's where as tube amp's excell at lower volume's & tend to have a more foward type sound that excell's in the mid's & high's,not very many tube amp's will give an accurate bass response when driven even with high effeciency speaker's.


tube amp's are more suited to low to medium volume listening with high rated speakers,like 98db & up,a well made & properly biased tube amp tend's to produce more accurate mid's & high's over a solid state amp at lower volume's & their bass response is more of a mid bass as oposed to a full bass,the more power you use from most tube amp's the less bass response you will get,after about 50% of the power is used from a tube amp the remaing wattage start's to become more distorted & will continue to produce more & more distortion due to the fact that they will continue to produce power even thru a full clip,tube amp's are also more likely to be affected by rfi interference over solid state amp's & also can be easily affected by an unclean power source or other devices with back ground noise on the same circut such as microwave's,refrigerator's,clock radios ect.

tube amp's work very well for biamping with a solid state amp driving the woofer's & tube's on top driving the mid's & high's .

solid state amp's on the other hand are generaly a cleaner more stable source of power & are able to reproduce a better bass response & handle transient's & high power burst's alot better thus creating a better sense of dynamic's.

choosing any amplifier is highly system dependant & before any quality reccomendation's can be given more info is needed.

1 budget.

2 associated gear.

3 listening level's.

4 music preference's.

Thanks for the info man it help clear up alot of stuff.

As far as the extra info you asked for;

The budget is still up in the air. I dont want to buy a high end amp thats made for speakers of a much higher caliber than the pair of Paradigm Reference 60's (max i/p 200W sensitivity 91dB) i have but i was thinking somewhere in the ball park of $4000-5000 (CAN.) for both the amp(s) and preamp.

I plan on adding two more bookshelf speakers of about the same quality of the 60's and a 12 or 15' sub to the mix and I'd like to be able to play music from a CD player and Laptop, as well as a pair of turntables w/ fader.

The system will be for listening and producing music only (no HT) and will be almost solely for Hiphop. (i want the bass to be HUGE but clean enough that it deosnt distort the vocals). I'd be listening to it probobly at lower levels mostly but i'll definitly be going up it the top 3/4 of the volume on a regular.

Hope that helps.....Thanks again for the reply man

 

[~JC~]

OK, that was a more accurate, less emotional answer.

 

[jaxvon]

Well then, you need a big, beefy solid state amp. You need some wattage. If you want the best (IMO) that Canada has to offer, check out Bryston.

 

[highfihoney]

Thanks for the info man it help clear up alot of stuff.

As far as the extra info you asked for;

The budget is still up in the air. I dont want to buy a high end amp thats made for speakers of a much higher caliber than the pair of Paradigm Reference 60's (max i/p 200W sensitivity 91dB) i have but i was thinking somewhere in the ball park of $4000-5000 (CAN.) for both the amp(s) and preamp.

I plan on adding two more bookshelf speakers of about the same quality of the 60's and a 12 or 15' sub to the mix and I'd like to be able to play music from a CD player and Laptop, as well as a pair of turntables w/ fader.

The system will be for listening and producing music only (no HT) and will be almost solely for Hiphop. (i want the bass to be HUGE but clean enough that it deosnt distort the vocals). I'd be listening to it probobly at lower levels mostly but i'll definitly be going up it the top 3/4 of the volume on a regular.

Hope that helps.....Thanks again for the reply man

i dont have a clue as to the conversion table for us $ to can $ so i''l just assume that your budget is $3500 usd for a preamp & amplifier,that's a killer budget & offer's you many choice's,i prefer to buy used gear as you dont pay for the hype like you do with new gear.

the suggestion above for bryston is a good suggestion as bryston allow's warrranty's to be transfered to the new owner & on most of their amp's it's a 20 year gaurantee.

amplifier

bryston 4b sst 300 wpc @ 8 ohm's & 500 wpc @ 4 ohms,approx $2,000 used.

parasound halo a21 250 wpc @ 8 ohm's & 400 wpc @ 4 ohms,approx $1,000 used.

preamp

mcintosh c 38,full function with tone control's,approx $1,000 used.

mcintosh c 39,full function with tone control's & ht,approx $1,000 used.

these are just a few suggestion's but any of them will work excellent for hip hop & other heavy bass music,the reason i reccomended 2 mcintosh preamp's is the tone control's,there arent many high end 2 channel preamp's being made any more with tone control's & unless you never plan on adjusting the tone they are a must.


the price's i listed are in usd & for used gear.