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FAQ answers 

Q1.    Why tube sounds better ?

Ans :   

There are several main reasons that makes tubes sounds better , the following list out those points,

1.    Tube is a much more linear device than transistor during operation.

2.    Due to the high non-linearity , conventional transistor amplifier must have very heavy NFB (negative feedback ) to make it work stable, but tube amplifier can work well with very little or even no NFB, and heavy negative feedback is well known today as one of the main reason of poor sound quality, shrinking the openness and depth of the sound stage as well as cutting the harmonics and airy components of a musical instrument. And NFB might create another form of distortion call TIM (total intermodulation distortion) , which is only detectable when more than one single tone of test signal being tested (more close to real musical reproductions) , so a low THD amplifier might have a very high TIM, and TIM is the main musicality killer which we try every effort to avoid. If you buy an amplifier by just looking at the specifications, then 90% or more chance you will get a very bad sounding amplifier, it is because usually the better the specifications, the more solid-state devices and more feedback had to put into the circuit to achieve this end result, but in return you will sacrify the sound quality and musicality.

3.    Tube is a totally mechanical device, inside a tube is just some metal plate arrangements, the effective operation area is much much larger than a semiconductor (typically 100,000 - 1,000,000 times larger). When music signal pass through a very small area, it will implies certain squeeze feeling to the signal itself and it is very noticeable , so when a signal just pass through one transistor, you will immediate sense the compressed , flattened and hardened feeling from the music. The more the transistors in the circuit,  the lesser the easiness , and  more flatness and hardness to the music.   

4.    Tube-amp  has higher THD (total harmonic distortion) than transistor-amp by testing, but those THD created by tube-amp is all even harmonics which is very pleasant to ear and will not feel disturbing unless it is > 12% (proven test by actual experiment conducted by scientist) . But transistor-amp gives out odd harmonic distortions which is highly un-pleasant to human ear, by actual experiment, just 0.1-0.2% of odd harmonic distortion is audible and will create very un-pleasant feelings even to un-trained ear. We actually need those harmonics generated by tubes , it is because during the recording process, a lot of valuable harmonic information has been cut due to limited bandwidth processing, so the naturalness of those instruments will degraded, lucky those harmonics generated by tubes will compensate large portion of those lost information. That's why tube gear always sound more natural and pleasant, it is just simply more close to a real musical instrument or human voice (both are rich in even harmonics).   

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