Why do some pple find tube amps better than ss amps?

[Ratboy]

for the hybrid amps, whereby the preamp is tube but power amp is ss, r they more tube like or ss like?

actually, which stage of the amplification plays the most significant part to amplifying the signal?

oops .. miss your question

The preamp amplifys more then the poweramp section
so if any section was to have more influence ... will go to the pre section.

But without either ... you will have no sound
so both is equally important

 

[subversion]

If given the same budget
a SS amp should sound better then a tube amp

this is only true of late. some years ago, the technology wasn't there to rival what tube amps have to offer in terms of ear candy.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

Yes, what Ratboy says is true. The pre-amp colours and defines tone more than the post-amp because when a gain knob is cranked, it is the pre-gain that's being cranked, not the post-amp (which happens to be the volume knob).

And for sub's point above, I won't be able to tell (since I've only started playing guitar not too long ago), it would seem logical to say so. Reason being, as mentioned before in my earlier post here,

SS amps are great a reproducing hi-fi quality sounds. Manufacturers are no longer (I'm not sure if they ever did) getting overdrives from SS amps by allowing people to crank a SS pre-gain because it won't make much sense. Imgaine having hard-clipped tone as you crank your pre-gain on an SS amp... Ears will surely bleed.

What they are doing now (or have been since the start) is to get a emulating circuit or a "mini" pedal there. Pedals that come to mind would be Sansamp GT-2, or a MI audio TubeZone or even a simple Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde. SS amps are (or were) employing variations these "in-built" circuits into their drive channels (eg jekyll as drive 1 and hyde as drive 2 or tweed as drive 1, brit as drive 2 and cali as drive 3). It is these emulating circuits which are improving, to give SS amps the ability to better reproduce tubeful tones. And how much do these circuits cost? Definately much cheaper than the price of these pedals being sold in stores... This, imo, gives low budget ss amps an edge of low budget tube amps.

 

[Ratboy]

this is only true of late. some years ago, the technology wasn't there to rival what tube amps have to offer in terms of ear candy.

sounds better or not is one thing
but nothing is more fun then seeing the glow of the tubes
smell the tubes heat up
( ss amps smells different !!! )
and being able to swap tubes for fun : )

Just that alone, will make you feel tube amps sounds better.


Just like being able to swap ICs in a tube screamer : ))

 

[bluemuffin]

plug and play

i just love the breaking up tones coming from my amp head through the cabs, of course, with the help of my rics and teles.

everything else is subjective.

- Han

 

[kym]

your rickie very nice!

anyway, i read in this guitar book that the the signal from ur guitar string is very very small, so it needa the pre-amp to amplify it, such that the signal is big enough for the power amp to work on it even more, to eventually project out the sound in the speakers. is it right?

 

[bluemuffin]

heya kym, thanks though! anyway, found this about the guitar signal thingy.

- Han

 

[Mobius]

The roland jazz chorus is one SS amp that i liked. the clean sound is great but the i don like the onboard drive though

 

[kym]

if u put a boost, like the mxr boost, before the amp, is the boost acting like a preamp? in fact, if u put pedals before the amps, r they acting like preamp?

 

[subversion]

The roland jazz chorus is one SS amp that i liked. the clean sound is great but the i don like the onboard drive though

this amp's drive wasn't engineered manifest good drive exclusively