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GarlicBiscuits OP t1_j9l1o25 wrote

Reply to comment by SchiitMjolnir2 in Tube Amp users: how do they differ from Solid State? by GarlicBiscuits

Which tube amps tend to lean more towards the colored end? I've looked through plenty of threads with people talking about them, but there was too much headphone jumbo for me to personally understand how certain tube amps sound.

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SchiitMjolnir2 t1_j9l6zh3 wrote

It's a good rule that that the more components after the input tube stage (e.g. 300 B tube SET amps), the more colored it sounds because, transformers and capacitors will have their own distortion characteristics that will affect the timbre of the mids. Some OTL tubes are more "solid state" sounding such as the Schiit Valhalla 2 because it does not have output transformer and the capacitor plus the tube used have more "linear" tonality/signature than others. Other OTL amp such as Feliks Audio Euphoria have a power tube that has distortion characteristics that affects the timbre of the mids so not all OTL will sound solid state-y

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blargh4 t1_j9l8ywz wrote

don't know how reliable of a rule of thumb that is - a complex amp with
plenty of feedback will likely have much less distortion than a dead-simple tube amp that does not employ feedback at all.

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SchiitMjolnir2 t1_j9lazr1 wrote

SS discrete amps are designed to avoid capacitors in the signal path, lots of feedback to minimize distortion (see Schiit's topology with the Magni+: "Topology: Fully discrete, fully complementary all-bipolar, symmetrical current-feedback design with driver stage and Vbe multiplier, no capacitors in the signal path and DC servo") while tubes are the opposite. OTL tube amps have capacitors in the signal path (except for Schiit Folkvangr) which imparts its own distortion characteristics to the sound

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