Has anyone dabbled with tube and valve amplifiers in their car audio? The one pictured is a HSS Fidelity HT-230 full tube, pure Class A. More details can be gathered from their website www.hssfidelity.com/.
I have not tried them out myself but would be interested to bring some of their products in for evaluation. As far as tube for car audio goes, I have tried the Butler, Blade, Tru Technology, PowerAmper, US Amps and a few others and yet they sounded good, none of them were exceptional. I was told some of these hybrid tube amplifiers worked even when the tubes were removed. I have also tried Tru Technology's C7.2AT (C for copper, AT for all tube) but at 13W x 2, it did not have the drive and would not please 70% of the crowd.
Has anyone tried Milbert amplifiers http://www.milbert.com/ or their tube pre-amplifier? Being a reputable 100% tube car amplifier manufacturer, I would also want to get my hands on the yummy 30watter BaM-235ab and give it a go. Perhaps then, our tube-lover editor would join me in the car audio arena too! :D
Recently, there were budget tube hybrid offerings from Helix and Phass but seriously, I doubt they will make me fall off my seat. Panasonic double-din CQ-TX5500 tube head unit made a debut quite some years ago but did not really fly with the audiophile users. Then came many reasonably priced hybrid tube pre-amps that were made to capture the bling-bling market rather than serious sound quality enthusiast.
While many of us feel (with common sense) that tube amplifiers will not be suitable in the harsh conditions in the car, I have seen enough persons that kept their tube amplifiers longer than transistors. Naturally, they are larger, less efficient and run hotter but with precautions and proper ventilation I do not see any real problems with having tubes in the car, unless you live or work in a jungle or a rocky terrain. And of course, to make the best out of tube amplifiers especially the full tube ones including the driver stage, we need to work on our car power supply and charging system.
2 comments:
i feel the ICE market is a different kettle of fish from two-channel market. first, the awareness level of what constitutes good sound is much lower amongst ICE enthusiasts, compared to two-channel audiophiles . no offence meant, a lot of ICE users are the SPL type and very few are as critical and enlightened as you and your followers.
i feel that you need to educate these people first and foremost. having said that, ICE market has more potential cos it is a bigger pie and not many dealers are as good as you ;-)
i would definitely be interested to listen to a tube setup in a car!
You're right. It could be 50/50 SQ vs SPL in Malaysia or in some countries like the States 40/60, whereas in countries like Singapore and Indonesia 60/40.
I'll reserve front seat tickets for you when I have a tube system up and running.
Post a Comment