Tube Audio

In almost every area of electronics, solid-state is, and has been since its invention, the best way to go. Transistors have long ago replaced the vacuum tube. Vacuum tubes are big and clunky, slow to operate, and inefficient. Transistors are so small and efficient that you can fit literally tens of thousands of them on a tiny square just centimeters wide. That is how computers are made through thousands and thousands of tiny transistor switches. There's no way that you can get the same effect with vacuum tubes.

What many people don't know is that there is one area where tubes still hold an advantage: audio equipment. Tube audio sounds richer,sweeter, and more appealing than transistor audio gear by far. When I first started playing guitar, however, I was unaware of it. I got A beginner level guitar amplifier that was, of course, solid state. I actually saw some guy playing it on you tube music and, to my ears it sounded alright. Still, as I got used to it, I realized there was a sort of harsh tone to it.

I asked one of my friends about it and he explained that I needed to use tube audio amps. He showed me his vacuum tube amp that he kept. in his garage. His practice amplifier was a solid-state one like mine, and I didn't get to see the audio tube one very frequently. When I tried it, however, I was absolutely blown away. There's just no comparison between the way it sounded and the sound of the amp I had been using.

After this fascinating discovery, I dove headlong into the world of amplifier tubes. I just couldn't get enough of learning about tube audio. Apparently, the reproduction of sound is not nearly as straightforward of a processes as I had always believed. Computers can perfectly encode and decode sound, capturing every minute detail of it, but once they play the sound to the outside world, distortion inevitably happens. Transistors introduce one kind of distortion while audio tubes introduce another. It just so happens that tube audio sounds a lot sweeter.

One of the interesting things about tube audio is the amount of control you have over the sound you make. When you buy a transistor powered amplifier, you are pretty much stuck with what you have. With a tube guitar amp, however, you can always get different tubes. Smaller tubes will give you a fatter sound with more distortion, while bigger vacuum tubes will clean up your sound and give you more power. It is all a matter what sound you're looking for.