So why do I do this you ask?
Well I have been working with tubes since I was a kid in the 60's. back then, transistor audio was considered
nothing more then a novelty, and what little there was generally lacked the physical and sonic quality usually associated
with the quality hi fi equipment of the time. The writing was on the wall, but most of the reliable, powerful, good
sounding equipment still used tubes. As the decade wore on, the vacuum tube began to be replaced by the transistor.
Many of us embraced the transistor as a sort of audio panacea which not only eliminated the need to change tubes
on a regular basis, but allowed us to use equipment that ran cooler and required zero maintenance. In an era where
every manufacturer was trying to produce 'lifetime' maintenance free products, the vacuum tube seemed out of place.
Audiophiles who used their ears as opposed to their eyes and emotions kept their old tube hi-fi, but a lot of us went
all out to get the new solid state equipment. Yes, I bought one too. A General Electric system. It did not sound half bad,
but it never quite had the sound of the old Rek-O-Kut turntable and Grommes amp I had. After a few years of using
the G.E., I realized that my tube stuff just sounded better. I had chance to use other solid state amps and receivers
and none had the full bodied sound of the tube audio I had.
Hi fi is a very personal thing, much like a car is. You may love Chevrolet, and I may be a Ford man. Both are
good cars, but a Chevy man would not be caught dead with a Ford and a Ford man would never be seen in a Chevy.
The same is true with Hi Fi. Some people like Fisher, others like Scott, and so on. But, there is one thing you will find
true with any tube lover. They will prefer any brand of tube amp over a solid state one. Why is this you ask and what
does it have to do with my passion for the stuff? Well, it is simple. I find that everything sounds better when played
through a tube amplifier. I also like the simplicity of tube audio. No membrane switches or digital programming.
No trick circuits which color the sound. Just good solid electrical engineering and quality construction. Tubes. due
to their linear characteristics, do not need much negative feedback or equalization to reproduce the entire audio spectrum.
This is not the case with transistors. Although fine discreet transistor equipment like late 60's through late 70's Marantz
solid state hi-fi is quite good, modern IC laden hi fi equipment uses massive amounts of inverse feedback and equalization
to maintain a flat response in the 20hz to 20Khz range. Obviously this colors the sound in ways not conducive to high
quality sound reproduction. Another problem with transistors is that most circuits using them tend to produce equal
amounts of both odd order and even order harmonics. While the even order harmonics are not too objectionable
even as high as 5%, odd order harmonic distortion makes an amp sound very harsh. The term used most often is
ear fatigue. I find I can listen to an old H.H. Scott 299C for hours while my ears seem tired after listening to a modern
receiver after only about 30 minutes. If you want to hear an extreme case, listen to any car audio produced today.
Yes, it is loud, but it sounds totally unrealistic. You might as well be running the CD, Tape or Receiver through a guitar
signal processor. Most of today's youth have been conditioned into believing that this is actually how things sound.
In the case of rap or hip-hop, this could be the case, but if you listen to real music, such is not the case.
I had not used tube amps for several years from the late 70's through the 80's. I too had forgotten how nice they
sounded. By 1980, the days of being able to buy tubes at the local electronics store had disappeared so my tube
amps were placed in the closet and I was using all solid state gear. I still had a Dyna Pas2 and a couple old power amps
using 6L6's in the closet, but I was happy, for the time, with my newly acquired Proton D540 and an Optonica digital tuner.
These sounded great, and so the tube amps sat in the closet. Later I bought an Akai receiver for the other living room.
One day, while cleaning the place I noticed that the Proton sounded much better then the Akai. Both were 40 watt
units but the Proton sounded much better for some reason. Anyway, I was confused so I looked into reasons why.
As I was thinking about this, I happened upon a Perreaux MOSFET power amp and preamp. They sounded even better.
Anyway, as a sort of joke, I pulled the old Dynakit and it's two power amps out of the closet and gave them a try.
After a few snaps crackles and pops, they finally settled down and I tried them with a newly acquired CD player.
To my astonishment, they sounded better then all the other hi-fi gear I had. But, they had problems. One of the
amps hummed, the preamp had an intermittent problem with a crackling and hiss in the left channel, and some
of the tubes were bad. Where the hell was I going to find 500 volt electrolytic capacitors, tubes, 2 watt resistors,
and 400 - 600 volt coupling capacitors? It was not easy, but I did manage to find the stuff. At the time, I did not
realize that this old gear needed a total restoration, not just a 'replace only the bad components' kind of
quicky fix. Still, though, I got them running fairly well and was amazed that this 30 - 40 year old stuff was easily
out performing my new hi fi gear. Since I had many years experience in electronics, the repairs were not
a problem. I was also in a hard rock band, and tube amps were becoming very popular. Since I knew how to fix
them, and since very few techs wanted to fool with them, I started making old Ampeg, Fender, Marshall, Sound City,
HiWatt, Park and Vox amps live again much to the amazement of my fellow band members. In one heavy metal band,
we ended up using only tube amps I had repaired. Our sound system actually used a couple old Musicman HD 130's!
The monitor amp was a Fender showman head. Our stage amps were a Marshall 50 watt half stack and my old black
face Fender Showman. What a setup! I also kept a pair of Sunn 200S heads as backup.
Anyway, I just enjoyed working with tube amps. About 6 years ago I moved from New York to Louisiana and
stumbled into a vintage guitar shop and got to know the owner. He had some old H.H. Scott amps he had just
collecting dust and rust so after some prodding, I finally got him to part with his H.H. Scott 299C and 299. I had
heard amps like this as a kid, but that was 30 years ago. Of course they sounded good back then as compared to my
parent's G.E. console. Yes, the dreaded 'home instrument' you hear talked of in unflattering ways by the audio magazines
of the period. Anyway, I reworked these two 30 something year old Scotts and did some initial tests. Well, they played
all right, but the real test was yet to come. How would they sound when connected to something other then my el cheapo
test speakers. I connected the 299C in place of my regular amp in my living room and when I played it, my jaw dropped to the
floor. This ancient H.H. Scott blew away my modern receivers and amps. It made my solid state stuff sound about as
good as your average car stereo or a Yorks from Walmart. This thing was amazing!. I had not used my turntable in
a couple years because it just didn't sound that great to me anymore. Well, I found out why. It was not the lp's or
the turntable but the amplifiers I was using. Anyway, I got both the 299 and 299C up and running then I noticed a
Scott 99D, 333, 333B and a tired looking Fisher 500C in the music store about a month later. I initially bought the 333B,
but a week later went back and picked up all the rest of the pieces. I restored them all and each piece amazed me. The
quality of construction, the cool looks and the sound just blew me away. I was hooked. I went on the Internet and found
several sites dealing with tubes and hi fi gear as well as news groups and the like. As I found, others out there were
also finding out what I had. Tube audio just plain sounds better. Also, it looks cool and has a build quality you just
do not find in consumer electronics anymore. I started a collection of sorts about 5 years ago, and now have some 23
systems set up in my house. All the amps, tuners and receivers work. Most all have been fully restored. The only non
tube pieces I have are some Marantz receivers from the early 70's. These are models 2270, 2240, and a 4415 with a SQA-1
quadraphonic adapter. Not only do I maintain this collection I also restore golden era hi-fi for others who are sick
of dealing with shops and techs who think the stuff is junk, do not want to work on it, and do not really know how
to properly service and restore 40 year old tube audio. Anyway, this is how and why I still work with vacuum
tubes and why my house is filled with vacuum tube audio. Even my guitar amps are tube!