Tube versus Solid State - listening test

[monkumonku]

I pulled this from Bob Latino's Dynaco forum site in which he posted the below YouTube comparing a tube versus solid state guitar amp. Here's what he posted:

At the video above is a test of a two guitar amps. One is a solid state amp and one is a tube amp. Can you tell which is which ? OK - they are not AUDIO amps but you should be able to sense the difference in tone between the two amps. There are a number of other videos on Youtube that do the same thing. At the end of the video they do not tell you which is which. In a subsequent video, the presenter of this video does tell which is the tube amp.

I'll just add I haven't even listened to it yet myself, but I thought I'd post it here so (1) all the golden ears can brag that they immediately knew the difference; (2) tubeheads will say they could tell the difference because of the much smoother, liquid, tubealicious flavor versus the cold and sterile solid state; and (3) solid state fans will declare they immediately heard the distorted, fuzzy and bloated tube sound and there was no question they knew the SS amp right away. (oh, and both the tube and SS camp will also say they heard the difference even with someone mowing the lawn right outside the window, who just happened to be their wife and she came inside to ask if they had gotten a new [ ] tube [ ] SS amp because the sound was so much [ ] better [ ] worse.

[DYohn]

Just a note that blind tests leave you blind. Scientists prefer observation and analysis.

[405x5]

I spent most of my life around other musicians from 1964 until I left all of that behind (from a performance standpoint) around 2005.

Guitar 🎸 players who are very conscious of the sound they are looking to project to the audience will use any number of, and have both tube and solid state gear, depending on the mission, along with a whole host of synthesizer gear.

Some guys will swear by tubes and only use them.
There are also tin ear musicians who care little as long as your ears bleed

Bill

[knucklehead]

Sounded like the 'B' amp was turned up a bit louder than the 'A' amp in the first demo. To me the 'B' amp was a bit harsh at times. Tube or SS can do that when driven too hard - although tubes are usually less harsh - usually. I wonder if that guy purposefully added the distortion in amp 'B'?

[simpleman68]

Aug 5, 2017 11:50:37 GMT -5 DavidR said:

B is the tube amp

I think your ears picked up on some artificial distortion that was added to the SS amp. I noticed the same thing.

A was the tube amp
Scott

[DavidR]

Aug 5, 2017 12:17:48 GMT -5 simpleman68 said:

Aug 5, 2017 11:50:37 GMT -5 DavidR said:

B is the tube amp

I think your ears picked up on some artificial distortion that was added to the SS amp. I noticed the same thing.

A was the tube amp
Scott

When I posted that comment I had only used the speakers in the laptop which is NOT the way to listen to anything. After the post by Knucklehead I plugged in my headphones. I was unable to tell definitively. On some tracks I thought A and others I thought B; so I deleted my post.