Thanks. I’m not trying to start another tube vs solid state amp debate, which has been done here 100 times, but I have a serious question, not being snotty.

Dang it I had a funny graphic I could have just asked you about to illustrate, but I can’t find it, but basically the idea is commentary on how most folks (the end user) listen to recorded music through cheap earbuds or computer speakers. (I don’t, but many do.) It was a graphic with lines showing the path of a piece of music from $2,000 guitar through $2,000 tube amp through $15,000 studio equipment through $20,000 more studio equipment ------ until it eventually ends up as a $0.99 mp3 file being heard through $10.00 iPod earbuds. Meant to be funny, but here’s my serious question:

How does this type of thinking affect your statements above, if at all?

If I record a little jam and put it on soundcloud and then post it here for y’all to critique, chances are that it will be listened to through cheap, digital, solid state computer speakers. In fact, many might not even hear it in the stereo that even my Zoom Q3HD VIDEO recorder records in (2 external mics giving me two tracks, at least, drums and my guitar, and it really works…you can tell where in the room the drums were vis-à-vis the guitar---stereo imaging). Heard through good headphones or even a decent computer sound system, which I have, that includes a subwoofer to handle the bass, that Zoom recorder produces some pretty good sound (it’s recorded in AAC 330 kpts or whatever it is).

So would it have been a waste to record it with a $2,000 tube amp? How much tube goodness is lost when people listen to mp3s on cheap sound systems, which are solid state themselves, of course? In other words, aren’t the great tube nuances lost when the end user is listening to an mp3 on computer speakers or earbuds?

A related question: should all of the debate about tube amp tone vs. solid state really be focused only on LIVE performances?

An interesting question ... could we use an analogy here:

Take a picture of a Ferrari with a cheap point-and-click camera (possibly even a phone camera):



Now use a similar cheapo camera to take a picture of a pinto:



Did the Ferrari end up looking like the Pinto?

_________________
Please subscribe to my Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/b7567

I still say that analogy does not quite work, however. My assertion is that when people on this forum listen to someone's music posted on soundcloud, they do so at very low volume on computer speakers, often from their desk at work, and indeed there is a big "compression" in the difference re: whether one can hear the Ferrari vs. Pinto tone or be able to tell what guitar or amp was used.

The reason I got this idea is I was thinking the same thing as I was listening to a Nirvana CD in my car this morning. This is a professionally sold CD, of course, and my car speaker system is decent. Not the greatest system with a thumping amp and subwoofer in the trunk, but tons of speakers that can handle some bass and volume. Well, here's my point. Even re: the guitar-heavy Nirvana, what I noticed is that the guitar seems very low in the mix and all I can really hear are the notes he's playing, and the VOCALS, like with all pop music, are way up in the mix. Could be my hearing and could also be that it was a live recording (live at Reading) that is infamously kind of poor quality.

Anothe way to look at this issue is the DRUMS. I feel like drums on many professionally released studio albums are sort of "blah" and they wasted their time doing whatever they did in the studio trying to make it just right.

It's always vocals that are way up on real releases, so much so that my guitar when I play for myself is screaming, in comparison, such that I put a lot of pressure on myself to not make mistakes, compared to a professional CD where the guitar is buried much lower, if you follow me.

Another way to illustrate my first point that my opinion is the analogy does not quite work, more concise: the difference between tube tone and decent solid-state tone is much smaller in degree than the difference between a Ferrari and Pinto, and even more so when the music listener is using computer speakers at low volume. That’s my theory.

I use up to date technology only .....

_________________
"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I'll take the Testarossa with another Testarossa as passenger...

_________________
"C'est parti mon Kiki "

definitely not, entirely in jest

_________________
Please subscribe to my Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/b7567