As any audiophile knows, when it comes to brand and price range there is an endless abyss of options for amps and preamps. Where you land on that is going to be very individualized and will involve trial and error and personal research. But the big question one must answer before stage diving into the aisles of your local audio equipment store is which type of amp you want for your vinyl set-up: a tube amp or solid-state amplifier.
Tube amplifiers (also known as valve amps) have been around since the early 1900s, marking themselves as both an early and enduring piece of audio technology. In 1906, the inventor and radio pioneer Lee De Forest created the first electronic amplifying device, the triode which he named the Audion. Forest was able to invent the first tube amp technology (it was not an amplifier by itself) by placing a zig-zag of wires inside a glass tube, with cathode and anode electrodes creating voltage gain and amplifying electrical signals in a way never seen before.
This creation of vacuum tubes gave way to what we now know as tube amps, a popular choice for vinyl lovers everywhere. In order to function, cathodes and anodes interact in a vacuum in order to create enough voltage to power a speaker. While there are different types of tube amps that create a variety of sounds, a commonality of all tube amps is the warmth of sound.
One of the downsides of high-quality tube amps is that they can run up a hefty bill, and the technology is more fragile than solid state and usually requires more upkeep. Also, tube amplification provides less power than solid-state, which means it requires more filtering in order to avoid hum. Common complaints about tube amps are that they add a hum to the noise floor of a recording, and sometimes lack sound definition particularly when you get into lower bass parts.
Instead of funneling sound through a single lone ranger tube, push-pull amps use two tubes to break up the plus and minus sides of the music signal, then they slap them back together in each channel into a complete flowing musical wave.
From a functioning perspective, push-pull amps tend to be more efficient than SETs because the tubes wear out slower due to sharing the workload, and they have higher output power. This means they work with a wider range of speakers, create less distortion, and often provide better sound quality for bass.
The more modern solid-state amplifiers (also known as transistor amps) use transistor circuits to pull beautiful music from an electrical signal (versus the voltage method of tube amps), which means they can connect and work with your speakers without any transformers.
Solid-state amps tend to put out more watts than tube amps and are known for creating a clean sound and supporting that deep bass boom so many people love. Unlike the potential hum that can come with tube amps, the noise floor with transistors is nearly non-existent, which makes for a clean tone and very little to no distortion.
In general, most hybrid amps are a transistor amp set-up combined with preamp tubes. The idea is to harness the warmth and fullness of tubes and connect them to the power section of solid-state in order to have an easier time with speakers and output. When done right, you can get some of the texture of the tubes without sacrificing detail. But as with most sound technology, a high-end amp that focuses exclusively on harnessing tubes, or exclusively on the benefits of solid-state is more likely to give you the consistent quality amp sound with less configuring on your part.
Tube amps are more responsive than solid-state amps, enabling you to play more dynamically and expressively. Due to their natural compression and harmonic distortion, they also tend to sound warmer and more musical. But how do tube amps work, and what are the variations that result in different tones?
With a tube amp, every component plays an important role in the sound and feel. Different sections of the amp do different things, but the overall sound is a result of everything working and interacting together.
EL34
These tubes are synonymous with classic British amps. Many well-known models from the likes of Marshall, Orange and Hiwatt feature EL34s in the power amp section. The EL34 tube is a pentode, meaning it has five parts (as opposed to a triode, with three parts), which helps to increase output. EL34s tend to sound a little grittier and more aggressive, with a strong, bitey mid-range. They will break up and compress really nicely when pushed, and offer a good frequency response.
On the trumpet the pitch of notes is principally varied by using the valves to change the length of the tube.
In general, the longer the tube, the lower the note. The structure of the trumpet enables the note to be lowered by one tone by pressing the first valve, by a semitone by pressing the second valve, and by one and a half tones by pressing the third valve.
The first valve lengthens the trumpet's tube by 160 mm, the second by 70 mm, and the third by 270 mm. These are just the right lengths for altering the pitch by the required interval.
On the trumpet the fingering to operate the valves is the same for C, G, and High C. In other words, the length of the tube is the same and the pitch is varied by blowing the instrument in a different manner. This is because a property of sound known as the harmonic series allows notes to be distinguished by blowing in a different manner when the tube length is the same.
The following figure summarizes the relationship between valve operation and the note produced. Even when the valves are pressed in an identical fashion, several different notes can be produced. How can this be so?
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If you are a passionate audiophile with a decent vinyl setup, I think it is ideal if you save up to you can invest at least $400 or so if you want to be sure that you get a tube preamp that is well-built and sounds authentic out of the box.
I was quite negative towards cheap tube phono preamps in the intro of this article, but if it is a company that seems to have nailed the task of building decent cheap tube phono preamp, it appears to be Fosi.
If you want to start out with an affordable tube phono preamp, my top recommendation is to buy the Fosi Audio Box X2 together with the Riverstone tube upgrades that are automatically recommended by Amazon.
I have not tested the Fosi Audio Box X2 myself, but the awesome reviews it gets combined with the mixed feelings I have about my similarly priced Little Bear T7 make me confident that the Fosi Audio Box S2 is the best cheap tube phono preamp to buy today.
When I initially researched tube preamps and bought my Pro-Ject Tube Box S2, I frankly dismissed the Nobesound brand all together because I read so many bad reviews of their T7 and T10 that I got unsure about the quality of the T11 as well.
But if you are willing to invest a bit of money in better tubes down the line and trust that Nobesound has got their quality control up to speed, the Little Bear T11 might be worth serious consideration.
My top pick if you want something more affordable is the Nobesound Little Bear T11. It seems to have matured into something quite good out of the box and furthermore transforms itself into a real good sounding phono preamp if you ditch the stock tubes for something better.
If you are on a tight budget and want to start out with a tube phono preamp for as little money as possible, then the Fosi Audio Box X2 is my top recommendation. It is the first cheap tube phono preamp I have studied that receives a very high level of favorable reviews.
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Music is the sound that is produced by instruments or voices. To play most musical instruments you have to create standing waves on a string or in a tube or pipe. The perceived pitch of the sound is related to the frequency of the wave. The higher the frequency, the higher is the pitch.
Wind instruments produce sounds by means of vibrating air columns. To play a wind instrument you push the air in a tube with your mouth or a reed. The air in the tube starts to vibrate with the same frequency as your lips or the reed. Resonance increases the amplitude of the vibrations, which can form standing waves in the tube. The length of the air column determines the resonant frequencies. The mouth or the reed produces a mixture if different frequencies, but the resonating air column amplifies only the natural frequencies. The shorter the tube the higher is the pitch. Many instruments have holes, whose opening and closing controls the effective pitch.
We can create a standing wave in a tube, which is open on both ends, and in a tube, which is open on one end and closed on the other end. Open and closed ends reflect waves differently. The closed end of a tube is an antinode in the pressure (or a node in the longitudinal displacement). The open end of a tube is approximately a node in the pressure (or an antinode in the longitudinal displacement).
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