As far as everything I've read is concerned, when pushed to their
limit, transistor amplifiers tend to clip the tops of the audio
waveforms; the sound is 'harsh.'
Tubes, on the other hand, tend to gracefully 'round off' the tops of
the wave forms; the sound is distorted but a lot more listenable than
the clipped transistor sound.
Guitar amps tended to be used closer to full power than other amps;
the distortion was more common than not. As a result, a 'lot' of
recordings were made with the distorted sound of overdriven amps.
IIRC, there are distortion boxes that intentionally re-create the
distortion of an overdriven tube guitar amp!
--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn_at_ix.netcom.nospam.com
>On Tue, 2001-11-06 at 12:09, Michael J. Hu=DFmann wrote:
>>
>> This has always been baffling me: I can understand why a guitarist may
>> prefer a tube amp -- the distortion from a tube amp will be different
>> from a transistor amp, and therefore the sound will be different as well=
=2E
>> But with hi-fi equipment, one would avoid ever reaching the the point
>> where distortion occurs, so how can it matter?
>
>At risk of fanning a tube/transistor discussion too much:
>
>'Distortion,' in common parlance, has come to mean 'audible clipping
>distortion' -- that buzzy noise you get when your audio reproduction
>system is pushed far enough past its limits so that it starts 'squaring
>off' the tops of waveforms.
>
>Strictly speaking, though, -any- sound reproduction introduces
>distortion, changes in the input waveform. For the most part, they are
>subaudible, but they are there, and even at low volumes, transient
>spikes can push your system into compression or clipping.
>
>Tube equipment distorts differently from transistor equipment (unless
>you're doing Bob Carver-style magic in the background), at all levels of
>distortion from subaudible on up to full clipping.
>
>The accepted reason that people prefer tubes is that tube distortion
>emphasizes even-order harmonics, while transistors don't. Even-order
>harmonics are, in nature, much more in-tune with the fundamental they're
>derived from, and so de-emphasizing odd-order harmonics can make sounds
>subjectively less 'harsh.'
>
>So, even at normal non-clipping listening levels, tubes introduce very
>small levels of 'distortion' that are pleasing to the ear; transistors
>introduce small levels of 'distortion' that may or may not be.
>
>--
>R Pickett The people that once bestowed commands, consulships,
>Hayseed Networks legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs
>emerson_at_hayseed.net eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses.
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