that is the problem,cost.
Tube gear is more expensive to do right even though the returns way more than changing opamps or upgrading caps in a solid state design.I have and do try to get good sound at a good price yet no matter how hard I try can only get the cost down so low before perormance suffers big time.
Why were transistors invented ? Cost Saving over tubes and not peformance ! Smaller chassis,lower operating voltages,less heat=lower cost to build
Why were integrated cicuits invented ? Cost saving over discrete transistors ! smaller chassis,even lower operating voltages,less heat,easier to layout for the inept=lower cost to build
Why was SMD invented ? Cost saving over the DIP Package IC.
Smaller size,less power again,able to be manufactured by machine taking the human out of the assembly process,less heat=lower cost to build
Each step "up" in electronics advancement was strictly on a bottom line economic bassis NOT was was a better way so the trick has always been to try and make the next generations work and sound as good as the last generation with each step up the food chain failing.
Even if that faiulure a miniscule one when added up going all the way back to the tube fore runner circuits,circuits still in use today just with active device changes the
we are seeing the next generation where more and more is crammed into smaller spaces,will run way cooler what went before and at far less power supply levels and again we will do our best to make do with what is available but I gotta say when any are compred head to head with the originals or even the previous generation there is evidence that each step forward is two back.
it does not help the situation when the market is flooded with tube amps that are better tossed into the garbage than they are put in any system or that we have crooks who will sell you what should be a $500 amp for $3K and tell you it is a bargain,state of the art when any thinking person knows it is all chassis work that has ramped the cost along with a healthy dose of greed,that most tube amps are clones of each other with lies dominating the ad copy so they can stand out from the crowd or that most consumers have no actual idea what a proper amp even sounds like and why they change amps like some change their underwear.(Weekly,Ewwwwww
no ss amp made can duplicate the dimensionality and power of a good tube amp,silicon does have its limitations.Are there good and even great SS designs ?
Obviously but look at the cost ! Tube amp territory becuase like tubes great solid state gear is expensive to build and the "why" is power supplies make or brewak the design and good sound means class A operation as far into the power envelope as you can get it and this brings us back to heat and size which = $$$$$
class-a solid state amps are BIG and run HOT
On stats alone I would be using the new generation of opamps with a DSL driver running off two AA batteries.On SQ would be the last choice and that is the problem with getting hung up on specs.
Many years ago I read in one of the audio rags where it was becoming common practice to measure audio products with all filters and protection devices disconnected so the data sheet read like a dream amp then once the lab tests and graphs up reconnecting the banpass filters and all other devices that make for a well behaved and good sounding amp.
The methods used to measure the amps so they could compete with the other guy ON PAPER made for some very unstable and not very good sounding equipment but knowing how people are and the psychology of the average consumer reralised good sound alone would not sell products. (another strange audiophile psychology point is make a great product and sell it cheap and you will sell nothing but multiply the cost X10 and/or dress it up and it will sell like food to a starving man !)
There is also the relationship between signal quality and what is audible.I know many who truly beleive an MP3 at 128 BPS is the full equal of the CD and on their systems they are 100 % correct !
Because they have resolving issues thoughout any increase in quality at one point will not be audible so you need to get the front end up to par first before you can even begin to identify what is and what is not superior in sound.an amp can not make music,only reproduce what is sent to its input,raise the level in a way that does not destroy that information then send it on to the next thing.
A good amp does not ADD air or warmth or "life" or anything else,it just does not butcher it as bad as a lesser amp
It really is mostly due to cost bud and even as a DIY hobby can be very pricey and why I played with scavenged or low cost gear first-Second hand Dynaco gear,amp sections pulled from old Radio/phono/TV/speakers consoles,tubes and tranformers from anything that had a tube.
Once the parts are in hand it then is time to do a search on each,download the data sheets,look at previous designs that used these parts then spend some time on the bench trying to make something worthy of all the work,with the hardest part being the learning curve (I am still at the first 30% or so,maybe less,maybe a bit more but hardly have this mastered).
like everything else the hype is hard to decipher until you do your own experiments but like you said costly AND very time consuming so doing one project per year not unusual.
my szekeres drive my grado cans better than any other in house amp but it took me applying tube gear methods to solid state design before I could say that.
My best "all around" amp is an SDS clone with multiple gain sttings.It can drive everything from headphones to loudspeakers and all with a very nice SQ.
My best portable headphone amp uses a single AD8397 because it is the single best one chip solution on the planet for batter operation but is in no way a contender for my home system duty (nor is ANY opamp
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I have tube amps that work well with specific headphones but not REAL WELL with all headphones and is a project currently in the pipeline.I am at the 6N1P voltage gain/6H30 CF output driver point and am playing around with operating points,an autoformer output and final layout (worst part of tube gear work
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I can remeber the very first "Solid State Vacuum Tubes" that had either mosfets (pentode replacements) or rectifying diodes (tube rectifier replacements) mounted righ on octal tube basses so they could be plugged directly into any amp and thought the idea a very cool one until reports of blown up amps,fried speakers and shitty sound started rolling in
ever notice how many technologies tout "tube like" as a feature then go on to crap on taube gear ? If it is so bad or not better in fact why do so many try so hard to to copy an "inferior" method ?
COST !!!!
Everything distorts.I defy any human to pick out the amp with 0.1% distortion from the one with 0.01% distortion on a regualr basis.If distortion was the whole story I would have stopped in the eighties with the TL072 opamp which boast 0.0001% distortion ! How many can live with a TL072 as their opamp of choice in all postions where one resides in their system ?
The "tubes sound the way they do because of distortion and phase shifts and/or other limitations" is propaganda put out by solid state equipemnt manufacturers because they want to sell products but even mass production consumer equipment manufacturers will usually have as their flagship product tube gear.
Look at the audiophile brand record labels and you find what as their monitor systems ?
Tube amps !
In very place where cost is not a factor in all of audio you will find tube equipment so unless they and I are totally crazy there is more going on than "distortion" or "warmth" with my personal opinion being it is the most musically ACCURATE methods of amplifying the audio signal and the test is the music comes through at the other end not the sound of electronics.
My only bitch is with my main system where I presently am running 300B SET amps that are just not powerful enough even though the best sonics I have ever heard so need to be replaced with something that sounds as good but in the 20 watt area,maybe 300B PP