Vacuum Tubes: Why They Sound Better for Audio

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.comwww.youtube.com/c/DWFearnhttps://dwfearn.com/

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Doug Fearn draws on his 50+ years as a recording engineer, record producer, studio owner, and pro audio equipment designer to explain the art and science of recording for the audiophile, music lover, and people in the music recording industry.