I honestly can't hear a difference between tube and solid state amps.

[twotone60]

Hi!

That´s great!
I urge you to try a "real" tube-amp next

cheers - 68.

I guess you didn’t read my next post, where I said that I have a silverface Princeton Reverb, a ‘66 Ampeg Jet, and an Allen Chihuahua, which is pretty much all I use in my funk ‘n roll band.

 

[dreamingtele]

I’m with ya’!
I abandoned tube amps a dozen years ago.
Too many hassles.
I like tube amps.
They’re all I used for decades.
I may even buy another one someday, but it would only be for old times sake.
I don’t hear enough difference to care.

And here I am, I thought I was the only one. Lol

 

[dreamingtele]

I remember posting a similar opinion to the OP about 10 years ago and being tarred and feathered for it.

Luckily, times are changing.

Times change, and fortunately, the tech as well.

 

[Piggy Stu]

I'd challenge you to consistently pick out a Quilter Micro Reverb 101 in a field of five amps, four being tubes. I would set them all to a similar level of overdrive at the same level of volume and challenge you to pick out the Quilter consistently.

Challenge accepted, but I want to play p90s on the edge of distortion: you can set the amps up. Happy to wear a blindfold if that will help you believe that some of us feel something different

 

[twotone60]

I am surprised anyone on here cannot tell a tube/ss difference. Maybe we play different music. I don't think if Howlin Wolf were alive he would go through ss. Nor Hendrix, nor Muddy Waters, but I can't get upset if you can't tell any difference

I think in the very narrow realm of blues especially slow blues, it would be a bit more apparent. In that type of music, as it is played by both bluesmen and tan pants bloooz players, there are often notes that are held and milked to death, at high volume. That’s where, perhaps, sag would manifest itself to the point of detection.

Of course, the best modern ss amps do a fine job emulating that, as well.

 

[dreamingtele]

Why do I respond to this thread, even though I know it will go as they always do?

Because I've had enough of tube amps' persnickety little ways, their promise of greatness and fizzle of defeat, their pops of death.

Do I sound bitter? Yes. But I have attained the victory. It comes in a small box with the name Quilter. My dead Vox collects dust, waiting for the day when I will think fondly of it again and take it to the technician. But for now, the thought never crosses my mind.

Hahahaha. TBH, those quilters sound VERY good

 

[cousinpaul]

Mowgli brought up sag on the previous page. What about bloom? Seriously, if there's a SS amp that produces bloom, I'd like to hear it about it.

 

[Piggy Stu]

Years ago there was a thread about metaphors used for tube v ss. My favourite was the difference between flicking a stream of water out of a hosepipe, with its inertia, momentum and gravity vs a laser pointer going to exactly where you point. There's something about a tube's workings that some of us enjoy and appreciate - leave us to it, we are happy in our little world. Maybe top end ss amps can model the physics like they can model galaxies colliding, but that's kinda showing how ss needs to do a lot more to equal what tubes do by their very nature. Maybe computers can model a 1930s Martin guitar some day from a keyboard - I will prefer the real wood in my hands, even if some cannot tell the difference. Let me be happy

 

[tele12]

You should probably have your hearing checked.

Seriously.

Fifteen years ago I could hear differences that I can't hear now.

 

[ChicknPickn]

Years ago there was a thread about metaphors used for tube v ss. My favourite was the difference between flicking a stream of water out of a hosepipe, with its inertia, momentum and gravity vs a laser pointer going to exactly where you point. There's something about a tube's workings that some of us enjoy and appreciate - leave us to it, we are happy in our little world. Maybe top end ss amps can model the physics like they can model galaxies colliding, but that's kinda showing how ss needs to do a lot more to equal what tubes do by their very nature. Maybe computers can model a 1930s Martin guitar some day from a keyboard - I will prefer the real wood in my hands, even if some cannot tell the difference. Let me be happy

Sometimes we fall in love with ideas. Like manual shifting in high performance vehicles. It used to be the standard. Now, it’s hard to find in a new exotics. My wife likes her three pedals. She can have them.

 

[brookdalebill]

I’ve owned lots of incredibly great sounding tube amps.
I had a 1969 Marshall 100W plexi, a great 1966 Super Reverb, and a SF Deluxe Reverb a previous owner put in a beautiful dovetailed maple cabinet.
I actually kinda miss those amps.
If I ever get another tube amp, it will probably only get used at home, for my own entertainment.
Unlike with guitars, amps don’t “charm” me enough to collect.
That said, my guitar collection is pretty complete.
Maybe I’ll start gathering a small tube amp collection.
One small American combo (kinda tired of Fenders, maybe an Ampeg or Tone King), one high power British amp, probably HiWatt, maybe Orange.
It could happen.

 

[47adelynn47]

I'd challenge you to consistently pick out a Quilter Micro Reverb 101 in a field of five amps, four being tubes. I would set them all to a similar level of overdrive at the same level of volume and challenge you to pick out the Quilter consistently.

what if you had no od on the five amps...tubes sound different than no tubes

 

[ChicknPickn]

what if you had no od on the five amps...tubes sound different than no tubes

I almost pointed that out. They do. Seems that most people who insist on the cleanest cleans these days go for solid state.

 

[Rocky058]

 

[TwangerWannabe]

Haha! Bunch of tube snobs getting butt hurt because someone says they can't hear the difference and prefer a solid state amp. It's like their foundation of cork sniffing is in jeopardy if there's someone with a different opinion than theirs.

I'd rather listen to a great player through a solid state amp than some hack through a tube amp.

 

[superjam144]

I’m getting glassy tone from a 500 dollar blues cube. I am a die hard fender dude but man tube amps are loud. Finally went to the dark side I guess, or just opened my narrow minded view about a brand.

 

[ChicknPickn]

View attachment 1035938

 

[47adelynn47]

Haha! Bunch of tube snobs getting butt hurt because someone says they can't hear the difference and prefer a solid state amp. It's like their foundation of cork sniffing is in jeopardy if there's someone with a different opinion than theirs.

I'd rather listen to a great player through a solid state amp than some hack through a tube amp.

nobodys butt hurt an no one's a snob...these are just different opinions

 

[ChicknPickn]

nobodys butt hurt an no one's a snob...these are just different opinions

If we were Neanderthals, we would club each other over our heads a few times, wipe the blood out of our eyes, and have a couple of nice auroch steaks together.

 

[Cheap Trills]

l've found that I can feel/hear the difference when I play them. Although, I haven't played every solid state amp out there, so open to the idea that there's something out there where I won't be able to tell. I most recently A/B'd tube vs the digital Fender Deluxe. I can feel it, had someone test me blind and knew it everytime. I love my Lab Series, even better than most tube amps, but I can still feel the difference.