Valves can perform as a amplifier, generally they work in
\npairs, one for amplifying the positive half of the signal, the
\nother amplifying the negative half. Valves are matched to each
\nother by a bias control with-in the circuitry of the
\namplifier, if they are not matched properly the result is what
\nis known as crossover distortion.<\/p>\n
Crossover distortion occurs where the positive and negative
\nhalves of the sound wave do not match up, this grossly affects
\nsmall sound waves, whereas the effect is not as noticeable
\nwith large sound waves. Therefore crossover distortion is
\nusually only noticed when a valve amp is being used at low
\nlevels.<\/p>\n
This is not the reason why valve amps sound better than
\ntransistor amps when they are overdriven.<\/p>\n
When an amplifier is overdriven the top section of the sound
\nwave is “clipped”. This changes the character of the sound and
\nso the character of the sound is determined by how the
\nparticular amplifier behaves when it goes into clipping. When
\na valve amp clips it tends to change the sound wave in a
\nsmoother and more natural way, A transistor amp tries to
\namplify the wave past the limits of its head-room and then
\ndrops back down resulting in a more ragged sound wave shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VALVE AMPLIFIERS Why do Valves sound better? Valves can perform as a amplifier, generally they work in pairs, one for amplifying the positive half of the signal, the other amplifying the negative half. Valves are matched to each other by a bias control with-in the circuitry of the amplifier, if they are not matched properly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1576,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1582","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1582\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bssound.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}