Fact resistant people

I just have to weigh in on this topic, long post follows:

Solid state
ADJECTIVE
(of a device) making use of the electronic properties of solid semiconductors (as opposed to electron tubes)

Semiconductor
NOUN
A semiconductor is a material product usually comprised of silicon, which conducts electricity more than an insulator, such as glass, but less than a pure conductor, such as copper or aluminum. Their conductivity and other properties can be altered with the introduction of impurities, called doping, to meet the specific needs of the electronic component in which it resides.

Inductors are coils of insulated wire. Resistors are made of carbon or metal film on a ceramic cylinder, and oppose the flow of current. Capacitors in their most simple form are two sheets of tin foil with a sheet of wax paper between them, which acts as an isolator. The plates are rolled tightly and store electrons on one plate and an absense of electrons on the other plate. Each of these devices are known as passive components in that they don’t amplify.

Vacuum tubes and transistors are known as active components because they can amplify signals. Transformers are two or more separate coils of wire with iron or air cores that are coupled together magnetically. Passing a current through a coil of wire produces an electric field in proportion to the voltage and current applied to the coil. Applying that magnetic field from a primary coil to one or more secondary windings produces current and voltage in each secondary winding which are isolated from the primary. Those secondary voltages can be smaller, larger or equal in magnitude to the voltage applied to the primary. A transformer can amplify a signal and is considered an active component. Power supplies and batteries are considered active components as they produce voltages and currents.

A rectifier is a device that allows current to flow freely in one direction, but blocks flow in the opposite direction similar to a check valve. Original (selenium) rectifiers were made of aluminum plates and coated with a thin layer of bizmuth or nickel. Vacuum tube rectifiers have grids inside that can pass or block the flow of electrons depending on the polarity and magnitude of voltage applied to the grid. Semiconductor rectifiers made of silicon or germanium can pass electrons in one direction and block the flow in the other direction. Each of these components have a slight loss of voltage in the forward direction before current begins to flow (the turn on voltage). Each rectifier will withstand passing a large voltage applied in the reverse direction, until the voltage is large enough that it will punch through the rectifier and pass current. This usually destroys the rectifier in the process. Putting these different devices in a guitar amplifier will cause a difference in sound due to how hard they turn on, and the magnitude of the turn on voltage. For the most part, silicon rectifiers (diodes) are the best as they have a very small turn on voltage and don’t lose much current when on as the signal through the device increases. They also can have very large reverse voltage protection and are stable with respect to change in heat.

A tube amp can use a silicon rectifier, this will be more reliable and longer lasting than a tube rectifier. The difference in sound between the two rectifiers is hard to quantify and will minimally affect sound when both devices are working optimally. The tube rectifier will over time decay and change the sound of the amp. Some may find the way the tube rectifier changes over time will contribute to the magic sound in a vintage amp. The silicon rectifier version will remain stable for many decades and will not affect the sound unless the device fails.

Back in the day of the first solid state electronics to hit store shelves, the term solid state was printed on the case of the device to indicate that there were no tubes inside. These devices were instant-on, with no warm-up time. Calling an amp with no semiconductors solid state is inaccurate. Calling a tube amp with diodes as the rectifiers in the power supplies is not in line with the term solid state because the amp uses tubes to amplify and modify the sound. Having a semiconductor rectifier in the audio path instead of using a tube rectifier is only slightly more solid state than a pure tube amp and although an argument could be made that the amp does use solid state components, it would not be accurate to call it a solid state amp as the term historically implies there are no vacuum tubes. As an aside, if your amp uses an LED for indication purposes, it has a semiconductor. Would that make it a solid state amp? I argue no.
 
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