Tube audio: vinyl or cd, what's better

[Guest " "]

"i was wondering how tubes differ from SS with cd's"

There is a different sound experience with music when played thru tube equipment. The difference is more significant the more you replace SS equipment with in-line tube equipment.

Options are

SS CD player, SS pre-amp, tube amp

SS CD player, tube pre-amp, tube amp

SS CD player, tube DAC, tube pre-amp, tube amp

Tube CD player, tube pre-amp, tube amp

If you note the options that involve tube cd player or tube DAC, this is basiclly two options of replacing the SS op amps in the output stage of a SS cd player with a tube line stage driver.

In the case of the DAC, the existing optical output in the CD player is sent to a ditigal to anolog decoder that contians a tube line stage driver.

In the case of the tube cd player, internally, the tube cd player has a tube line stage driver.

[Deang]

Tubes liquify and add atmosphere to the sound regardless of the source.

Wow, this sounds like something else that imparts a 'vivid sense of plasticity' to reality! [][]

Hey, it's measureable -- I swear it is -- honest -- no sh!t -- really -- no kidding!

[sheltie dave]

The best way to go is to play good music through a good system! [Y]

[sheltie dave]

The best way to go is to play good music through a good system! [Y]

And double post to stress that!

Synergy is a key. I have heard $400 systems that sound wonderful, and $50,000 systems that sound like a cat coughing up a hairball. If you have a seperate component system, then a good start would be a either a tubed cd player, or a tube preamp of good quality. In my book, the tube transition is far more significant than the TT/CD player question.

[gonzp]

Vinyl period.

[joessportster]

personally i prefer vinyl, however i do have a tube cd(rarely used jolida jd 100 with upgraded tubes) , and i run everything thru tube amps and preamps, so question is where do you live in pa.......... im in york and if you are close enough and want to get an idea of what tubes can do for the music lets set up a date and time for you to get a listen i am waiting for my pre-amp to be returned from mark but after that we can have a listening session...............shoot me a pm if you are interested

Joe

ps i just spoke with mark and it will be at least a week b-4 i get the pre back as it will probably ship out tomarrow and it takes 6 days to get here from ca.........man im suffering withdraws no music for 3 weeks now............

[Audio Flynn]

Ever notice how many of the better SS amplifier

designers describe their products as sounding "just like tubes?" But,

how often do you hear a tube designer proclaim his amplifier sounds

"just like a transistor?"

The CD was NOT conceived or invented as an audiophile quality device.

Those designers and engineers actually had nearly no concern whatever

about sound quality as we know the term to mean. It was a better

"cassette" - a new formidable and extremely cheap way to distribute

music. It was an amazing and brilliant idea which worked perfectly. 99%

of the public is perfectly happy,delighted and satisfied as they should

be. Look, compare the call quality on a cell phone today to the call

quality on a copper line telephone in 1965. No one would conclude the

cell has better quality. It's dreadful, but we all need the

convenience. We all use Cell phones. Now, it just turns out that we

don't really care enough about call quality to react the way

audiophiles reacted to the CD - by returning to vinyl with tubes. Well,

ok, sure enough, when I have an important call to make, I still pick up

my land line phone.

md

Superb analogy.

I listen to mostly CDs for the convenience. My wifes convenience has a

large influence. Then I go through a streak of 2 weeks or so and listen

to 80 % LPs.

Record care and cleaning was really bad in the old days. Seems like

classical collectors were focused more on record care than other genres

of music listeners.

The sad part of the evolution was the studio recording going "DDD" when makign a CD. Most of my favorite sounding CDs are "AAD".

Another analogy...

A good TT/ tonearm/ cart has a sizeable number of moving parts requiring pretty close manufacturing tolerances.

My 1984 Mustang GT was the last year of 4 brl carburator.

The digital age made the inconvenience of an anlog fuel system obsolete allot quicker than CDs made vinyl obsolete.

[joshnich]

I dont know which is better. I do know that I prefer by a large margin, listening to records (on tube equipment). Given the choice I will always spin the record over either an SACD or a CD in that order.

Josh

[coda]

Natural sound by definition is analog, however LP equipment can be more prone to mechanical interference to potentially reduce high fidelity. Then there is the dynamic range advantage with SACD versus LP. And consider also there's some great music on vinyl that's not on digital, and vice versa. AB comparisons of the same title can be less than reliable to determine a format advantage due to engineering differences that can be traced back to the recording studio. Then there is the aging factor, digital formats by design should have better life in the long run.

I'll sum up by agreeing that in my experience I've heard some great vinyl, and I've heard some great digital with tube gear, and I would be happy with either.