Private "computer listeners" room

I can't find any information on the matter - I still don't think that such a thing ever existed - at least not as an internal soundcard. Of course there are various external soundcards connected via USB, and some of those indeed use tubes.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Lindsay Lohan wrote: And how could you be 100% sure before you have tested it? They would be fools to combine it if the resulting sound would be awfull combine what? and who are they? Combining digital soundcards with tube technology

I've never heard of any such card ... if they were that great, I guess that I would at least have heard about it. Can you provide an example?

Lindsay Lohan wrote: And how could you be 100% sure before you have tested it? They would be fools to combine it if the resulting sound would be awfull

combine what? and who are they?

Lindsay Lohan wrote: All Class D amps will always begin to distort at nearly the same rates as Tube Amps BUT however the distortion from the Tube Amp sounds more rounded instead of the sharpness of an Class D amp.

Of course all amps have distortion - tube, transistor, etc.. But I think we should discuss this in another thread ... the topic was supposed to be listening on a computer. I think we can conclude that soundcards with tubes are not recommendable ...

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Haha but you say that you must have a hybrid media because the digital one can never reproduce the sound that is taken from a analog (tube) one. Esentially the tube distortion is alot more round,smooth and lush than that you would get from a digital media and therefore it is better.

Yes. But I'm referring to applications where the tubes are used to create distortion. In the hifi world the tube amps are used in a voltage/current range which avoids the distortion - you don't want your hifi amp to distort the signal. And that is the problem with tubes - they always distort, you'll never be able to completely remove the distortion.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Aha so you admit that a fully digital media would not be able to reproduce the sound as good as a analog one?

No.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Aha but why is the digital amp modeling incabable of reproducing the positive effects of the analog side of the deal?

Because the distortion created by the tube is quite complex. Digital amps fail to simulate that ... they're getting better and better though.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: And i recall you pointed out a hybrid soundcard with a tube would sound crap while a purely digital one would sound better

That's not quite what I said. I said that it would not make sense to include a tube inside a computer chassis because of the electronic interferences from the other circuits.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Lindsay Lohan wrote: Hm who came up with that silly idea of connecting tubes to amp modeling processors Now THATS what i call unnecessary Do you even know how it works (Valvetronix)? Well explain to me why that will sound so much better with tubes when normal amps with tubes will not sound better.

Normal amps with tubes DO sound better. That's why most artists still don't use Line6 amps, at leastto my knowledge.

The Vox Tonelab uses digital amp modelling for the preamps. The tube is - together with some ingenious circuitry - used to simulate the interplay between a tube (power) amp and the speaker cabinets.  

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Hm who came up with that silly idea of connecting tubes to amp modeling processors Now THATS what i call unnecessary

Do you even know how it works (Valvetronix)?

I daresay I'm not the only one who spends a lot of time on computer and a fair percentage of that time is at home. The only way I can keep sane is to have continuous music streaming out of my klipsch 2.1 speakers connected to an ST audio card. Thankfully I don't have to sacrifice that much quality because the hardware is available- at a far more realistic price. Maybe its the price that gets audiophiles off, not the quality....