What was your first "tube experience?"

[tube fanatic]

I have the sense that many current users of tube amps and preamps started out with solid state equipment, especially if you are on the younger side.  How about relating your first "tube experience" and why it resulted in your preferring it to solid state.  In my own case I, of course, grew up with tubes and have stayed with them ever since (the price I have paid for being "older"!).  When I saw my first glowing tubes at around age 3 (the repairman came over to fix grandmas console radio) I was hooked, especially when he left behind the replaced tubes which my parents let me keep.

Maynard

[CECAA850]

I remember going with my father to the drug store I believe, every time our tv had an issue.  He'd pull every tube in the tv and take them down in a box and check them.  Normally he'd buy one or two and it would start working again.  I've just recently acquired my first tube audio rig at home.

[moray james]

my first tube experience was a pair of pro Altec amplifiers (have no idea which model) running first a set of Valencia and then Barcelona Altec loudspeakers. I was suitably impressed. I have an ASL Tuplip stereo block and a pair of very large old Northern Electric (the Canadian arm of Western Electric) amplifiers and several Solid state amp by Quad and Meitner all are modified.

Edited August 12, 2015 by moray james

[minermark]

Likely age 10  when i started tube work, Ham Radio/Shortwave, and dad would drop me at the drug store with tubes and money, i was the one who fixed the TV, SkyKing and Roy Rodgers ruled LA.

As Memory serves by the time i was 12, my friends dads were coming to me for my tube collection, when dad dropped me off to test/buy, i bought the most popular tubes anyway, always spent his money, after a couple years of that, my dad never bought an RCA TV again, he thought it ate Tubes.

[Luv_sum_Horns]

I used to play with the tube testers. They seemed to be everywhere, like Rexalls and Five and Dime stores. Fast forward 50 years or so, and I buy my first tube amp.

 

I am so ashamed of myself.

-bill

[richieb]

My parents Zenith console. Wasn't aware at the time as a young kiddo but yep, tube powered. Turntable, tuner, full range speaker all in a '50's contemporary cabinet. It use to buzz and being maybe 10 yo, I just banged on the side thinking that would clear things up - never worked. Listened to the first Beatles album on that thing as my parents just shook their heads. Other than needing new tubes it is in near mint condition for its age. It now sits downstairs next to a KHorn. A family heirloom blast from the past.

[muel]

I'm sure I heard tubes when I was a kid but not that I was aware until just about 6 years ago.  Growing up, my parents had a Zenith console and then later a Magnavox but I don't know if the Magnavox was still tube or an early SS console.   The first time I was aware of listening to a tube amp was (Christmas present to myself in 2009) a NOS Valves rebuilt Scott 299b playing "Dark Side of the Moon"  on 1967 Cornwalls.  Good stuff!

[MORE KLIPSCH PLEASE]

As of now I own all ss....but I do want to get some tube gear..

 

But on to the tread....This lady gave me this big old turn table thing when I was young...mybe 12 or so... and when she gave it to me it was old then. It was big and heavy. I got it in my room and I was checking it out. It had a big woofer and a smaller tweeter. I remember looking at all the tubes in the back of it. So I plugged it in turned it on and got one of my LP's. This thing rocked, when my buddies came over they could not believe the sound this old thing put out.

Don't remember what happend to it.....I probably took it apart or something...

 

MKP :-)

[garyrc]

My first "tube experience" was when I built a "Two Tube Set," as it was called, when I was in Cub Scouts.  I put a stencil of a wolf on its oiled plywood box.  I spent many happy hours listening to it through cheap headphones, which of course, we called "earphones."

 

I now have nothing but SS, but look back fondly on my Mac & Dyna tube amps, and less fondly on my Eico and Arkay tube amps.  Someday ...

Edited August 13, 2015 by garyrc

[Taz]

The Early Years don't count for me as I had no Idea What I was listening to.

 

Fast forward and I'm buying and liking Vintage SS.  Marantz and Sansui mostly.

 

Neighbor told me he had some old tube amps I should buy.  I didn't know nothing about no "Tube Amps."

He said they were McIntosh.  uh ok?

 

Got on this site for advice, but still feeling real unsteady.

 

Brought home 2 Mc 30's and a pre amp.

 

Set them aside until I felt recovered from the $1,000 Total cost of the units.  Still feeling uncertain about the deal.

Had them gone through for another $1,000 and put them back on the shelf.

 

Got some Khorns.   Put the Khorns with the Mc 30's.  And put the 2 together for my  Intro to Tubes.

 

Now I'm not as sharp as some guys,  But I'm told this is an alright system.  Even the guy that worked on them talked about how nice this particular system looked, was preserved, and sounded together.

[jacksonbart]

Science class, they also had beakers and Bunsen burners 

[mike stehr]

When I was a kid, (late sixties,early seventies) my mom was a poor divorced single working mother with three kids. I recall watching a BW '50's era tube television around 1969/70 to watch Saturday morning cartoons. My hearing was good enough that I could every tube in that television sing warming up when turned on.

 

We had tube TVs and radio/stereos until the early to mid seventies. There was a old cathedral style floorstanding AM radio, that my oldest sister adopted for her room. My mom had found a stereo AM/FM/phono console for the living room to replace the radio. She also had a coffee table type stereo console lowboy thing that I eventually got...I recall playing Peter Frampton at 45 RPM with it...along with Deep Purple at normal speed. I'm sure these console stereos were 6BQ5 based, and is maybe the reason I like the sound of EL84/6BQ5.

 

I figure from 1975 on I never heard any sort of tube radio/TV/audio (or just didn't pay attention to it) until around 2003.

 

In 2001 I found a pair of Chorus IIs at the local AFB thrift store, I needed a diaphragm for a midhorn and found the Klipsch site. Joined the forum...still here...

With all the blather about Klipsch and vacuum tube amplification I became rather interested in trying some sort of kit amp, a rebuilt vintage amp, anything.

 

A forum member at the time, (Jazman) offered up a pair of Eico HF-12 integrated mono amplifiers. I bought them, knowing that a guy with my income is going to have to go the DIY route. So many, many hours were spent researching/learning all aspects of tubes, schematics, caps, resistors...you get the idea, I was "NEW". 

I managed to get one of the Eico amplifiers to work in stock form, which gave a taste of hearing thermionic amplification with high efficiency speakers. It was enough of a taste to want more.

 

Well, the best way to learn these things is to befriend a audio or electrical engineer who is into audio. So one day I spotted a eBay listing for a Knight integrated tube amp, and the seller was local. I contacted him and mentioned while I wasn't interested in the listing, but that I would like to stop by for a visit. He mentioned he had plenty of tube gear, radios, speakers, and to come by.

 

A good friend came along for the visit, because the buddy system seem like a good idea when visiting some unknown chap. Now I figured the guy would have a couple tube radios, maybe a tube rig for a main system. Nope...this was a two bedroom house with a finished basement, and it was completely FULL of audio gear, even the kitchen. Speakers, many, many, speakers. (that was the main interest with audio to Dan) Tube amps, tubes, test gear, more speakers...aw man, I just shinned myself on a frikkin' scope...ouch!

 

This is where I got my first taste of DHT triode amplification. Dan had a breadboard set-up of the 6EA7/bridged Allied IT circuit he cobbled up, with a Marconi ST45 for output, and a Knight output transformer pinched from a 6BQ5 amplifier. (it may have been a PP OPT) He used a tube DC power supply he acquired employee discount when he worked at Magnavox in the mid-sixties. It was a beast, good for 600 volts DC at 200 milliamps.

The speaker he had connected was a Whiteley Stentorian HF1016 10" full-range speaker, in a 3.5 foot internal volume cabinet, port tuned lower than the roll-off frequency of the speaker driver.

The particular Whiteley HF1016 had a Fs of 50Hz, he had the cabinet tuned for 35Hz. Everything was one channel...a breadboard experiment.

 

While it may have not been modern high fidelity by any means, that wonderful midrange had me HOOKED for good. And the clean strong bass from maybe 1.5 watts was very, very impressive.

And this was done DIY for mere peanuts. 

 

And that's that.

Edited August 15, 2015 by mike stehr

[mkane]

2006

[joessportster]

Maynard

 

I had a phase linear system running infinity rs2 speakers that kept shutting down the amp, I moved to an Onkyo 504 amp in an attempt to resolve the amp shutting down, Those damn infinity were beautiful and sounded great but were so hard to drive I kept killing the amp and so I started a hunt for the reasons and a way to resolve it, what I learned was the speakers were so ineffecient they were the problem

 

That is what introduced me to Klipsch and this forum, I sold the infinity and bought a pair of cornwall1 as well as a pair of heresy 1, and was pretty much a happy camper, reading on the forum non stop in those days I began hearing about tube amps and so starte asking questions which led to an invitation by GaryMd to come hear his dynaco st70's on K-Horns and his scott 299c on cornwall

 

upon hearing the cornwall system I went straight home and began looking for tube amps and sold every piece of SS I had

 

It blew me away how 17wpc could sound so much better than my 165 watts of m504....................although I loved the tubes I was not completely satisfied and so kept asking about tubes etc.... and eventually was invited to JBryans home to hear his 45 set amps powering his oris  / Khorn bassbin setup and I was hooked on SET amps right then..........................still am & would love  to find a 45 set amp for headphones (hint   )

[minermark]

Maynard

 

I had a phase linear system running infinity rs2 speakers that kept shutting down the amp, I moved to an Onkyo 504 amp in an attempt to resolve the amp shutting down, Those damn infinity were beautiful and sounded great but were so hard to drive I kept killing the amp and so I started a hunt for the reasons and a way to resolve it, what I learned was the speakers were so ineffecient they were the problem

 

That is what introduced me to Klipsch and this forum, I sold the infinity and bought a pair of cornwall1 as well as a pair of heresy 1, and was pretty much a happy camper, reading on the forum non stop in those days I began hearing about tube amps and so starte asking questions which led to an invitation by GaryMd to come hear his dynaco st70's on K-Horns and his scott 299c on cornwall

 

upon hearing the cornwall system I went straight home and began looking for tube amps and sold every piece of SS I had

 

It blew me away how 17wpc could sound so much better than my 165 watts of m504....................although I loved the tubes I was not completely satisfied and so kept asking about tubes etc.... and eventually was invited to JBryans home to hear his 45 set amps powering his oris  / Khorn bassbin setup and I was hooked on SET amps right then..........................still am & would love  to find a 45 set amp for headphones (hint   )

70s i was all over the SS, like tubes, they do some things well.

80s with the help of friends, we all found out SS for the Bass, Tubes for the tuning quality we were looking for.

We were Bi-Amping an did not even know the meaning of the word.

82 thru now and forever i will BI-Amp the exact same way.

More than enough power/Quality to pizz off every living thing aroud you WITHOUT overdriving either amp(s).

[Paducah Home Theater]

First tube I ever heard was an Ampeg bass preamp. It was a hybrid where the preamp was tubes but the amp was solid state. Later I heard a tube guitar amp, much fuller and louder than a typical solid state one. Not entirely sure why it would be a good thing for a stereo but the added fullness and distortion and subsequent perceived volume adds a ton of character on bass and guitar.

[joessportster]

 

Maynard

 

I had a phase linear system running infinity rs2 speakers that kept shutting down the amp, I moved to an Onkyo 504 amp in an attempt to resolve the amp shutting down, Those damn infinity were beautiful and sounded great but were so hard to drive I kept killing the amp and so I started a hunt for the reasons and a way to resolve it, what I learned was the speakers were so ineffecient they were the problem

 

That is what introduced me to Klipsch and this forum, I sold the infinity and bought a pair of cornwall1 as well as a pair of heresy 1, and was pretty much a happy camper, reading on the forum non stop in those days I began hearing about tube amps and so starte asking questions which led to an invitation by GaryMd to come hear his dynaco st70's on K-Horns and his scott 299c on cornwall

 

upon hearing the cornwall system I went straight home and began looking for tube amps and sold every piece of SS I had

 

It blew me away how 17wpc could sound so much better than my 165 watts of m504....................although I loved the tubes I was not completely satisfied and so kept asking about tubes etc.... and eventually was invited to JBryans home to hear his 45 set amps powering his oris  / Khorn bassbin setup and I was hooked on SET amps right then..........................still am & would love  to find a 45 set amp for headphones (hint   )

70s i was all over the SS, like tubes, they do some things well.

80s with the help of friends, we all found out SS for the Bass, Tubes for the tuning quality we were looking for.

We were Bi-Amping an did not even know the meaning of the word.

82 thru now and forever i will BI-Amp the exact same way.

More than enough power/Quality to pizz off every living thing aroud you WITHOUT overdriving either amp(s).

 

agree completely Bi amping is the best of both worlds, SS does have its strengths...............I once set up a bi-amp system using craigs vrd for bass and though it sounded superb I felt it was overkill 1800.00 used vrd's doing the job of a 300.00 SS amp

[minermark]

 

 

Maynard

 

I had a phase linear system running infinity rs2 speakers that kept shutting down the amp, I moved to an Onkyo 504 amp in an attempt to resolve the amp shutting down, Those damn infinity were beautiful and sounded great but were so hard to drive I kept killing the amp and so I started a hunt for the reasons and a way to resolve it, what I learned was the speakers were so ineffecient they were the problem

 

That is what introduced me to Klipsch and this forum, I sold the infinity and bought a pair of cornwall1 as well as a pair of heresy 1, and was pretty much a happy camper, reading on the forum non stop in those days I began hearing about tube amps and so starte asking questions which led to an invitation by GaryMd to come hear his dynaco st70's on K-Horns and his scott 299c on cornwall

 

upon hearing the cornwall system I went straight home and began looking for tube amps and sold every piece of SS I had

 

It blew me away how 17wpc could sound so much better than my 165 watts of m504....................although I loved the tubes I was not completely satisfied and so kept asking about tubes etc.... and eventually was invited to JBryans home to hear his 45 set amps powering his oris  / Khorn bassbin setup and I was hooked on SET amps right then..........................still am & would love  to find a 45 set amp for headphones (hint   )

70s i was all over the SS, like tubes, they do some things well.

80s with the help of friends, we all found out SS for the Bass, Tubes for the tuning quality we were looking for.

We were Bi-Amping an did not even know the meaning of the word.

82 thru now and forever i will BI-Amp the exact same way.

More than enough power/Quality to pizz off every living thing aroud you WITHOUT overdriving either amp(s).

 

agree completely Bi amping is the best of both worlds, SS does have its strengths...............I once set up a bi-amp system using craigs vrd for bass and though it sounded superb I felt it was overkill 1800.00 used vrd's doing the job of a 300.00 SS amp

 

Yeah. but that one quality Bass driver unit :emotion-21:

[ssh]

Dad had a Bogen integrated that I still have. I sent it to Craig to restore. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to find all of the tubes, but he did, and it's a surprisingly good amp.

SSH

[Luv_sum_Horns]

I thought it was really cool that I could "listen" to my older brothers vinyl with one of my mom's sewing needles. Had to get your head pretty close to hear any fidelity lol.

 

To this day, he is probably wondering why his albums sounded so bad.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Luv_sum_Horns