Thon:
I am aware of what the engineering texts say about tubes and I also know how tubes measure. But have you ever listened to a tube amp, especially a direct heated triode design? How have you reached the conclusion that tubes "are, in fact, the least realistic of modern amplification technology." I know how they measure and nonetheless, I still purchased a tube amp. The experience is sensual, in much the same way a good, live concert is. The problem is that there are fewer and fewer of these concerts and if you have young children as I do you do get to go out as much as you did when you were younger and had fewer responsibilities. Mostly you only have spectagulars for which you have the joy of paying $125/ticket plus parking for terrible sound and an indifferent performance - and in my case you are happy to get the chance to attend that tepid performance.

Of course, I do not install tubes in a typical installation. Tube equipment is not user friendly and sound quality is not high on my design criteria. Equipment control is high on my design criteria. But I have heard many different amplifier designs from most of the leading high end audio companies and nothing in my experiece provides the musical experience that a tube amp does. I could give a **** how it measures. In the debate of measurement vs ears or objective vs subjective I side with my ears and subjectivity. I suspect the difference is that I know how my amps perform on the test bench and prefer them anyway. You only know how they perform on the test bench ( I hope ) but have never put your prejiduces to the test by giving them a listen. And I just sold my first pair of Triad Gold monitors and the client auditioned them with my 300B tube amps and he is also purchasing this amp ( not from me as I do not sell them. )

Enter one of those snooty, high end salons and pretend you have a high end system when they qualify you, and give a listen to a tube amp, especially a triode design and compare it to a transistor design. Forget the engineering texts and try to put aside your preconeived notions. Let your ears decide and while you may not feel the price/performance ratio is sufficient to overcome your objections you may also come to respect an opinion diametrically oposed to your own. You may also find, that when it comes to subjective terms such as sound quality, the engineering texts leave a lot to be desired and terms such as linear and non linear do not have any bearing on what you are hearing or what sounds good. Now if you belong to the "if it cannot be measured it does not exist " crowd then there is little to be discussed. Even Mr. Atkenson, after he panned the Carry 300B amps had to admit they sounded damned good, too good to explain their poor measured performance.

And could you please point out where I wrote that tube amps were more realistic than transistor designs? I believe "seductive" and "musical magic" were the words I used. Skybird gave tubes a listen and came away impressed. You might too. [added for clarity]
Alan

This message was edited by Audible Solutionns on 09/27/04 21:59 ET.