Why Do Some Audiophiles Insist on Tube Amplifiers?
Tube amplifiers distort in a different manner from transistor amplifiers, generating musically agreeable even-order harmonic distortion that may lend a sense of so-called “warmth” to sound quality (the “warmth” is still a distortion or coloration; it’s not present in the source signal) and it’s this characteristic that most tube aficionados prefer. While tube amplifiers are often not as smooth or linear in frequency response as transistor designs and have other liabilities as well, when pushed near or past their output limits, tubes tend to gracefully distort, without the harshness associated with transistor clipping. However, tube amplifiers are limited in output power due to the tubes and output transformers. Solid-state amplifiers, when pushed past their output limits, “clip” the audio waveform producing potentially harsh-sounding odd-order distortion that can be quite grating or unpleasant to the ear. On the other hand, kept below their maximum rated output, transistor amplifiers a
