Jump to content

Tube Sound From Your Solid State Amp ?


ka7niq

Recommended Posts

In lived in Seattle, and Bob Carver taught me something I would like to pass on to those of you that may not know about it. Will this make your solid state amp sound exactly like a Tube Amp, not exactly.  But, Bob Carver did that, and demonstrated it to Stereophile. In fact, I picked Bob up from Sea-Tac airport when he flew back home to Seattle from New Mexico. I heard it at Bob's home in Snohomish for myself on Bob's Dahlquist DQ 10's. Bob had a Conrad - Johnson tube amp, and his transfer function modified transistor amp he demonstrated to Stereophile, and the 2 amps sounded absolutely identical.

 

To make your solid state amp sound more tube like, here is what you do, buy some 20 to 25 watt resistors like these http://www.electronicsurplus.com/vishay-dale-electronics-cpwn20-3-resistor-power-0-3-ohm-20w, then place only one resistor in series with one of your speaker terminals. Bob suggested buying 3 of these resistors (6 total) starting at 1/4 ohm, 1/2 ohm, and 1 ohm.

The more resistance you use, the more tube like your amp will become, however, past 1 ohm on most speakers, the bass will get sloppy past 1 ohm. The resistors can be inductive or non inductive, feel free to experiment with both kinds. 

 

This is a quick and dirty little trick that will change your sound, give it a try. 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love Bob Carver, as much as Paul Klipsch, both are my audio heros. That being said I have Sunfire amps that have the "current source" output with I believe what you described added in at the factory. Besides eating up 100 watts of power they really seem to "muddy" up the sound to me on horn speakers although I did like the sound on my old Carver Ribbon speakers. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, jjptkd said:

I love Bob Carver, as much as Paul Klipsch, both are my audio heros. That being said I have Sunfire amps that have the "current source" output with I believe what you described added in at the factory. Besides eating up 100 watts of power they really seem to "muddy" up the sound to me on horn speakers although I did like the sound on my old Carver Ribbon speakers. 

I left Seattle in 1989. My friend Mark Ormiston owns Definitive Audio, that is how I met Bob. I was a Pacific Northwest Audio Society member back then.

Bob and Diane Carver had a home in Snohomish.

I also breifly met Paul Klipsch at Cobo Hall in Detroit when I was a teenager ( I am 63 now)

He had a big Bullshit button on :) 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Schu said:

Why not buy an amp that IMPARTS  a sound...

 

There are many choices to choose from and most all of them sound different.

Of course, they do

But a few dollars for some resistors can surely change the sound of an amplifier.

And, so can room correction schemes. In fact, I am getting ready to run MCACC this evening.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, wdecho said:

Not to belittle Bob for he is a giant in amplifier design but he only duplicated the sound of one tube amplifier probably a push pull one. Not all tube amplifiers sound the same. There is plenty of information on how he did this challenge on the web. Duplicating the sound of a single ended triode with SS is much harder to pull off. Most all SS amps are trying to duplicate the sound of a tube amplifier with much more power. Some do a better job than others. With our efficient speakers one can achieve excellent sound using a modest priced tube amplifier vs a SS amplifier that will cost much more to sound as good. Those that have those conventional 85db speakers are the ones that need to spend much more money for a SS amplifier that will sound as good as a modest priced tube amplifier using our speakers. This debate has been going on since the introduction of sand devices and will continue far into the future. Nelson Pass from all accounts designed a SS amplifier that sounds very much like a single ended triode (SE 300B) using a special one of kind transistor that has curves that resemble a triode tube. Most all transistors have curves that resemble a pentode tube though there are some newer ones that are showing promise appearing on the market for other fields and not specifically designed for audio. 

The guitar amplifier guys are using computer modeled solid state amps and DSP to emulate a Tube Sound. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...