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First, to be quite honest, I find solid state better than tubes. It just has to be the good stuff. However, I'm curious as to wether anyone actually has done tubes in a car.
That said....why not build your own instead? Aside from the power supply, DIY tube amps are availible in a million bajillion permutations.
Well, yeah. It's sort of a hypothetical, but then again, this is DIY mobile audio - I'm surprised nobody's tried.I dont see how tubes can sound "better". From what I hear it adds warmth. Adding something thats not there is not better. I know tubes can be better in guitar amps, cuz of the way they sound driven hard, but distortion in guitar amps is an excellent thing. Not in my playback IMO.
Cripes! That thing must pull, what, four hundred watts?I have a HSS Fidelity HT230 all tube class A SET amp...it's for the car. It's the only class A tube amp made for the car- the Tru and Milbert are a/b push-pull. The Tube Drivers. US Amps, DLS, Planet Audio, and US Amps only use tubes in the preamp...well, the Tube Drivers don't really have any signal going through their tubes.
The HSS uses 2 paralleled KT88s wired in triode mode to put out about 30 watts a channel. The KT88s can be swapped to 6L6s, KT77s, KT90s, or KT100s if you want.
My amp was/is very expensive...heavy, and large. But boy does she make some sweet music on my horns.
That said....why not build your own instead? Aside from the power supply, DIY tube amps are availible in a million bajillion permutations.
No. No, they're not. The 6L6 is a very different tube from the KT88 - as a rule of thumb, the KT88 is both more linear than the 6L6 and capable of much higher voltages. There's a reason that 6L6s are rarely found outside of guitar amps nowadays.I haven't seen too many people going for the KT90s, but from what I've read QC has improved on the tubes. I have seen a few folks going for the KT77s though. But from what I've read the 88 is a better tube...and the 6L6 is the US version of the KT88 and is less prone to microphonics...so I guess the 6L6 is even better in some respects to the KT88s.
For $1,000, I, personally, would build you a tube amp for your car. Probbably a heavily modified Dynaco ST-70 with a custom flyback transformer setup and enough shockmounting not to kill the tubes.but in home, you could get desent amp in the region of 1000-2000 . in car you get integrated that isn't all tube and it cost arm and legg.
so if i could get a realy tube amp in the region of 1000 , i think i will bay it. but that seems **** a dream