Listening to music in a vacuum--or why some audiophiles love the sound of tube amplifiers
Vacuum tubes are hot!
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)It's like the difference in taste between a tomato you grew in your backyard or one of those plastic things at the supermarket, or frozen pizza vs. a slice fresh out of the oven in Little Italy. We're talking big differences here. And those are the sort of sensual pleasures high-end audio delivers compared to iPods and ear buds. Sure, the little buggers sound good enough, but if you really love music, don't you want to hear your tunes sound as good as they can?
I'm sitting here listening to the late British singer/songwriter Nick Drake, and his lines "Do you feel like a remnant of something that's passed?/Do you find things are moving a little too fast?" put the consumer electronics' current ball of confusion in perspective. If you've had enough of the never ending parade of formats: cassette, LP, CD, DVD-Audio, SACD, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-ES, DTS 96/24, DTS Master Audio, Blu-ray, DVD, HD DVD, HDMI, HDMI, 1.1, HDMI 1.2, HDMI 1.3, HDMI 1.3a, and now HDMI 1.3b, you might be ready to drop out.
This little Darling 1626 amplifier that came to me from George Lenz of TubesUSA is the perfect antidote to that malaise. The amp is an all-vacuum tube design (no transistors) and hooked up to my Zu Audio Druid Mk IV speakers the sound is spectacularly beautiful. There, I said it, the "B" word, which is after all, why musicians seek out old Martin guitars and Steinway pianos. It's why some folks go for early analog Moog synthesizers. It's the sound baby!
The Darling 1626 in all its glory.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)It's the same deal with vacuum tube audio amplifiers, they somehow coax more natural sound from recordings than solid state or digital amplifiers do. The tone feels richer, warmer, sweeter, more like the way instruments sound in real life. My recordings take on a dimensional solidity, and vocals sound distinctly more flesh and blood human. Tubes also look really cool; sure, they have their followers here in the land of Coca Cola, but European and Asian audiophiles are even more devout believers.
The Darling 1626 amplifier goes for $2,500, but this amplifier wasn't born in a factory; Lenz only builds one when he has a buyer. He imports all sorts of tubes and not only tests each one, he actually takes the time to listen to them as well! He also sells exotic Japanese amps, like the Kurashima 2A3 integrated amplifier ($4,995) that pumps out four (4) watts per channel, double the juice of the Darling, but since my Zu speakers are extremely efficient, they can sing with a couple of watts. These handmade amplifiers aren't cheap, but the pleasures of living with handcrafted designs are a big part of their appeal. The people like Lenz who build these things do it for the love of it, and that's a rare commodity in the twenty first century. The TubesUSA Web site is loaded with great info, especially for the hard-core DIY (do it yourself) audiophile crowd.
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
I do give credit to Bob Danielak for his assistance on this project on my website(tubesusa.com) under "George's Corner". I had worked via email with Bob for about a month on this "Darling" design. It is Bob's dual 1626 circuit used in conjuction with my very own power supply. Bob Danielak's name was discussed, but Steve forgot to mention it in his blog. Thank you for the oversight on this matter
Best Regards,
George
Kevin
- by savagesteve13 January 3, 2008 5:52 PM PST
- You would think with all the 3rd world nations that still use vacuum tubes, people would be smarter than to pay $2500 for a 4-watt amplifier. The old Russian tube factories can probably get you a good one for about 50 rubles.
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- by make_or_break January 4, 2008 6:26 AM PST
- Building a better mousetrap is usually more than the sum of its cheap parts. While I'd also have to swallow pretty hard before justifying two-and-a-half large for a 2 WPC amp let alone actually [i]buying[/i] one, the slack I'd ultimately cut is that these units are actually well-designed, well-crafted specialty pieces. I've heard some pretty poor-sounding tube units in my time, from cheap to not-so, so it's not all that outrageous to expect that when someone handcrafts an amplifier that is a performer to boot, it's likely going to be spendy. Yet when it comes down to what's 'expensive' is all relative; when it comes to that bizarre stratosphere that audiophiles typically play in, dropping $2500 for something...anything...is often considered a non-event.
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(5 Comments)That being said, I've also heard some fairly affordable recent units out of China that are far cheaper to be had. Given their sourcing, exclusivity isn't really their norm but I'd easily opt for a decent to excellent-sounding mass-produced analog room warmer from Shanghai over most supposedly state-of-the-art solid-state amps anytime.