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Tubes, Samsung, and Best Buy


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I can only wonder how many future audiophiles will start their audio journey with one of these.

 

Or indeed how many journeys will come to a crashing halt... "You know, all this high end audio stuff is pure hokum... I've got a top of the range Samsung tube system and it sounds like shi... Even my (non-audiophile but classically trained) wife can't stand the thing. Comes in handy for lighting the barbecue though"

 

Meh. Who knows until someone has a listen? I'll look out for it the next time I visit PC World. The little window on the front showing the tubes makes me think: 1 - looks like one of those 70s fake open fire heaters, and 2 - it's marketing, not manufacturing that's behind the idea.

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I wondered if it may be the new LED tube technology that does emit light but carries no audio signal

Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not." — Nelson Pass

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Or indeed how many journeys will come to a crashing halt... "You know, all this high end audio stuff is pure hokum... I've got a top of the range Samsung tube system and it sounds like shi... Even my (non-audiophile but classically trained) wife can't stand the thing.

 

LOL .. glass half empty or half full? I saw this as (hopefully) an introduction to something a bit different in a familiar form factor for the average dude. After all retro is the rage right now (vinyl).

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They do look a bit like a Valvo knock-off of the ECC88/6299.

I certainly wouldn't complain if Samsung was taking a crack at making some new ones. If they are using NOS tubes for sound-bars though...thats kinda sad.

Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not." — Nelson Pass

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Googled around and here is the answer. NOS, probably not. Shuguang, more likely.

 

12AT7/ECC81

iMac - iTunes(AIFF) - Squeeze 7.9- QOBUZ flac streamer - Vodafone Revolution Router - Transporter - Pathos Classic One MkIII - JM/Focal Daline 3 - dhLabs & Xindak xlr cables - Mapleshade header and footers - AppleTV3

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A lot of these comments lead me to believe the posters have never heard a well designed tube based audio rig...My iMac/J-River front end sounds great through my PrimaLuna integrated amp/Benchmark system...

I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you any understanding – Samuel Johnson

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And not one of you has actually listened to it. Is this Audiophile Snobbery? You do realize that this is the kind of behavior that gives the term Audiophile a less than stellar rep, right?

MacBook Pro, 16gb RAM, 500gb storage, McIntosh MA-6900, Paradigm Reference Signature 6 Towers, Cambridge Audio Magic Streamer 6, Mountain Lion, iTunes 11.0.X.

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A lot of these comments lead me to believe the posters have never heard a well designed tube based audio rig...My iMac/J-River front end sounds great through my PrimaLuna integrated amp/Benchmark system...

 

And not one of you has actually listened to it. Is this Audiophile Snobbery? You do realize that this is the kind of behavior that gives the term Audiophile a less than stellar rep, right?

 

I know, I know - very fair points.

 

I would love for this to turn out to be an audio gem, and be accessible to all via big box stores. Just not getting my hopes up too much, mkay?

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And not one of you has actually listened to it. Is this Audiophile Snobbery? You do realize that this is the kind of behavior that gives the term Audiophile a less than stellar rep, right?

 

I love quoting myself. Does this make me an Audiophile?

Just kidding.

Samsung makes some very good gear but I guess its just for the eyes so what would an Audiophile know about that?

C'mon guys-if you havent heard it, how can you possibly judge?

MacBook Pro, 16gb RAM, 500gb storage, McIntosh MA-6900, Paradigm Reference Signature 6 Towers, Cambridge Audio Magic Streamer 6, Mountain Lion, iTunes 11.0.X.

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C'mon guys-if you havent heard it, how can you possibly judge?

 

Total Harmonic Distortion 10% THD @ 6 ohms

 

They make great TVs, but you have to hook them up to some non-Samsung audio device in order to match the audio quality to the video quality.

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They make great TVs, but you have to hook them up to some non-Samsung audio device in order to match the audio quality to the video quality.

 

When I got my first Samsung HDTV, I tried connecting my iPod Touch to the component video inputs to play some YouTube videos that I had stored. It would not work. I called tech support at Samsung, and after some arm-twisting on my part, the customer support rep admitted that Samsung TV's are deliberately incompatible with Apple products.(For obvious reasons, but "I didn't hear it from him.")

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When I got my first Samsung HDTV, I tried connecting my iPod Touch to the component video inputs to play some YouTube videos that I had stored. It would not work. I called tech support at Samsung, and after some arm-twisting on my part, the customer support rep admitted that Samsung TV's are deliberately incompatible with Apple products.(For obvious reasons, but "I didn't hear it from him.")

Hmmmm... I'm not sure about that... Sounds like the customer support rep just didn't know the answer so made up a reason you might accept without too many questions...

 

Eloise

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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I wondered if it may be the new LED tube technology that does emit light but carries no audio signal

 

One of the guys at work was talking about these Samsung tube amps at lunch the other day. So words are spreading in the mainstream. Just took a quick look at the manual for the sound bar in question. It has dimmer buttons on the remote to control the brightness of the tube window. So probably the orange glow in the photo that somebody posted in this thread is indeed from LED or something similar.

 

According to the specs, the sound bar itself has 160W of power. A pair of small signal tubes like that obviously aren't running the actual output. So this is a hybrid at best with probably a Class-D backend. In fact, the shape of the box is unlikely to be big enough to accommodate a proper linear power supply for the tubes. Is it really fair to even call this a tube amp?

 

And finally, the manual makes no mention of tube replacement at all. So they probably don't expect you to use the box for more than a couple thousand hours...

 

Andy

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Hmmmm... I'm not sure about that... Sounds like the customer support rep just didn't know the answer so made up a reason you might accept without too many questions...

 

Eloise

 

Ahhh.... the joys of technicians doing customer support :) (FWIW, my Sammy telly works fine when fed by iPad)

 

Plz forgive or ignore next bit as it's entirely off topic:

 

To be fair, I've noticed an improvement in IT or similar tech support over the past few years. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe the message has finally got through to them that it's not acceptable to start a support session by claiming the problem is entirely the customer's fault / someone else's software etc etc.

 

But I've had a few classics:

 

When setting up an inkjet proofer, the tech explained that he wanted to use his company's (the now defunct Kodak) paper for the setup. I said, fine, I can understand that, but once you've done that could we also try this generic paper to see how close it gets, since there's a huge price difference (I showed him the box). He replied Aha, but I have no idea what's in that box, it could be anything! So I opened the box, and he closed his eyes and looked away! When I later spoke with a more senior tech, he explained (as if to a child): Well if we helped people to use generic paper, how would we make any money? This is after we'd spent several thousand on printer, software and installation (paid in full, no contract to use their materials... plus the salesman has previously been asked and insisted that their printer and software would work with any paper).

 

A telecoms engineer came out to fix a problem with a new hub (was giving snail like speed). After working for an hour he announced that the problem was our connection box (a pretty standard RJ45 ethernet), and proceeded to construct a bizarre chain of cable (from our "faulty" box) to another box (which looked remarkably similar to ours) and then to the hub. I let him get on with it, I just wanted him to get things working, figured we could try and tidy up later... but when he'd finished and announced "all lights are green, it's fixed!" I asked why his company's previous generation hub had worked fine for many years connected to the same box... he informed me that "You just can't explain broadband. It's a very finicky thing. There's just no explanation for how it works and why it stops working". (Perhaps it's magic, I wondered). Guess what, the problem wasn't solved. Real reason, the new hub was faulty, a different technician came later that day and the first thing he did was replace the hub.

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Ahhh.... the joys of technicians doing customer support :) (FWIW, my Sammy telly works fine when fed by iPad)

 

Plz forgive or ignore next bit as it's entirely off topic:

 

To be fair, I've noticed an improvement in IT or similar tech support over the past few years. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe the message has finally got through to them that it's not acceptable to start a support session by claiming the problem is entirely the customer's fault / someone else's software etc etc.

 

But I've had a few classics:

 

When setting up an inkjet proofer, the tech explained that he wanted to use his company's (the now defunct Kodak) paper for the setup. I said, fine, I can understand that, but once you've done that could we also try this generic paper to see how close it gets, since there's a huge price difference (I showed him the box). He replied Aha, but I have no idea what's in that box, it could be anything! So I opened the box, and he closed his eyes and looked away! When I later spoke with a more senior tech, he explained (as if to a child): Well if we helped people to use generic paper, how would we make any money? This is after we'd spent several thousand on printer, software and installation (paid in full, no contract to use their materials... plus the salesman has previously been asked and insisted that their printer and software would work with any paper).

 

A telecoms engineer came out to fix a problem with a new hub (was giving snail like speed). After working for an hour he announced that the problem was our connection box (a pretty standard RJ45 ethernet), and proceeded to construct a bizarre chain of cable (from our "faulty" box) to another box (which looked remarkably similar to ours) and then to the hub. I let him get on with it, I just wanted him to get things working, figured we could try and tidy up later... but when he'd finished and announced "all lights are green, it's fixed!" I asked why his company's previous generation hub had worked fine for many years connected to the same box... he informed me that "You just can't explain broadband. It's a very finicky thing. There's just no explanation for how it works and why it stops working". (Perhaps it's magic, I wondered). Guess what, the problem wasn't solved. Real reason, the new hub was faulty, a different technician came later that day and the first thing he did was replace the hub.

 

You know, in all fairness, sometimes things happen in IT and you just honestly dont know why. My career was IT and IT support. You'd do all the obvious things and nothing would work. Then, you'd just wing it, and voila. Someone would ask you, what did you do? I'd always say, "beats me, but its working." or, "that's why I get paid the big bucks," or something equally clever. And I'd heave a huge sigh of relief walking away.

 

In telephone tech support, I've noticed a real tendency go by a script. I've usually done the first few steps in the script already, and then the script is exhausted pretty quickly and its, "Can I put you on hold?" That's the que that the person is seeking another script or someone else...

MacBook Pro, 16gb RAM, 500gb storage, McIntosh MA-6900, Paradigm Reference Signature 6 Towers, Cambridge Audio Magic Streamer 6, Mountain Lion, iTunes 11.0.X.

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