Vacuum Tubes: Why They Sound Better for Audio

Send us a text


My recording career started with vacuum tube gear, and it’s a
sound I still prefer. In this episode, I tell the story of my
early experience with a homemade mixer using tube mic preamps,
and my reluctant transition to solid-state audio equipment and my
eventual return to tubes.


There may be many reasons why tubes sound different than
transistors (solid-state), and I explore some of those
differences. The biggest reason may be the distortion products
that exist in all amplifiers, whether they are tube or
solid-state, and why our ears prefer the even-order harmonic
distortion of tubes.


But tubes are not the best choice for everything, and I explain
why solid-state integrated circuit op amps are a good choice in
some applications.


And tubes are not appropriate for digital electronics, even
though the first digital computers used vacuum tubes. I tell the
story of going inside a Univac tube computer while it was
operating.
Recorded with an AEA R44CXE microphone through a D.W. Fearn VT-2
vacuum tube microphone preamplifer, a Merging Technologies Hapi
converter, and recorded at 24 bit/96kHz PCM. The audio was
processed through a D.W. Fearn VT-5 Equalizer and VT-7
Compressor.


email: dwfearn@dwfearn.com
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/