HIFI Advices please read

OK...anyway i don't consider a musical system without tubes in the highs or full tubes...a big system with only solid state amplification is a joke. Even the best solid state sound cold, electronic in the mid/highs.

It's not about look at all...
I talk about empiric things that everybody who comes at home
(or at some frien's home as well) can experience; there's no need for gold-plated ears. My system "pushes walls", there's no distorsion at all, we feel at the heart of the sound and the lows are incredible, the
highs and extreme sing incredibly, you rediscover any disc.
You'd be happy to hear how CD works (it's possible)but it's because it's Tube in the mid/highs and that the system is over optimized at all levels...

OK MOS FET are better on the paper. But a great one billion solid-state system always sound cold, flat, harsh in the mid-highs compared to Tube.
It's something that every honest people may certify. So this means that
figures, measurements don't reflect the result, the musicality of any device. this is something that has to be experienced, that's all i can say.

Tube amps mesure less good than solidstate but are 100X times more musical in the mid highs/highs/extreme high which is spectum part to
which we're the most "sensible" (in french)

However, solid state is unbeatable for low/extreme low.

But if you have to have only one integrated amp, it must be tube...
and then you can add a good sub for low and extreme low.

That's why the logic is to perform bi amplification. And it works.
You can even do "tri amplification" adding a sub for extreme low.
That's the royal way, including a preamp and a good source.

PS: yes the output transformer is very important in the sound, so is
power in general so that's why we audiophiles, work on it




Edited by oliverstoned - March 02 2011 at 13:28

I tell everybody all i know....Jolida 302 is a fantastic amp
(from USA) that costs around 1000 dollars and compare to
the best tube amps and so anything else...

An absolute reference

Of course you can use two using it as mono block, one for each canal

^ Interesting......make an arguement for a non-tube setup, which is ok as they are pricey. Jolida I see only sold thru dealers, so I pay a pretty good markup probably...upwards of 50% is my guess, is it worth it?

^ Thanks Dean.......I know NAD is good stuff...looking into that, although I see their int amps do not have a phono input, at least the ones I looked at.

The Nad phono stage is not TOO bad but that's far from being a good one.
But that's another story.

Nad is what i recommend for teh cheaper possible setup because it's very musical for integrated solid state, a warm sound closer to the real live thing than many more expensive solid states.

But it's still light years away from tube in the mid/highs.

"What you get with valves and vinyl is that colouration in the mids and tops that agrees with our ears, not what is flat, linear and distortion free."

Yes and when you add great solid state in the low you reach musical bliss!

Edited by Mr ProgFreak - March 03 2011 at 04:05

I'd like to add that there are solid state which sound "colored" as well.
And coloration and musicality are two very different notions.
We audiophiles are looking for the most neutral devices so we don't have to compensate this by that. But it has to be musical as well.

On another hand, some devices are lighlty colored but still highly desirable as they're extremely musical. Like the legendary tube tuner Marantz 10B which is the absolute best tuner ever because there's no other tuner doing so sweet music. For example teh tuner Goldmund Mimesis
IV (solid state) goes further on hifi criterias (it's the Ferrari of tuner) and it's one of the very best sources on earth (and it costed
10 000 euros when first released) but it's not as musical as the Marantz.

All that to say that figures don't tell much, if nothing about the result.

"as good" or "less good" is like the salt is salty and the sugar is sugaree. Everybody agrees on that. It's empiric indeed.