Why do Audiophiles use vacuumtubes? Is there anything they use that isn't overly exaggerated?

Why do Audiophiles use vacuumtubes? Is there anything they use that isn't overly exaggerated?

Dat analog warmth bro

Better saturation characteristics when overdriven. Not much else really. Look cool i guess.

placebo

>pros
when saturated they don't clip, but do a nice bell curve, which is better sounding
harmonic distortion, which gives the "warm" sound, is generally perceived as a good sound enhancement
good modern tubes have very low distortion, close to modern chips, but are ungodly expensive
they are able to deliver much more POWER

>cons
good modern tubes have very low distortion, close to modern chips, but are ungodly expensive
take time to warm up
power wasters, inneficient
they get hot, children stay away
distortion is higher than using chips
some people might not like harmonic distortion, or may perceive it as altering the music in a bad way
good modern tubes have very low distortion, close to modern chips, but are ungodly expensive

That's about it. Both have their use cases.
Using tubes with headphones is retarded as fuck.

What should they be used with?

Good speakers that need power to be driven, for example.

Well, you could use them with low power stuff like monitors or headphones for the warmth meme, but those will never be close to saturate the amplification system. It's a waste of power that makes your power bill bigger.

their ears have autism, so they need to convert their digital, to analog, and then to analog again because reality is actually painful and no one wants to hear what music really sounds like

>when saturated they don't clip, but do a nice bell curve, which is better sounding

wtf kind of shitty audio setup would allow the amps to saturate anyway? Defeats the purpose of audiophilia

welcome to the audiophile world, m8
where people want 10%thd transformerless amps and believe in cable risers instead of room treatment

Not all of them do. The ones that idolize Vinyl do though.

But they are retarded, because CD audio was measurably higher than that of vinyl.

To answer your question, valves/tubes cause distortion to peak frequencies that cause a rounding of the waveform (rather than cutting the top end off of the peaks in a square manner, as digital does), and it introduces some analog anomalies to the signal chain that for whatever reason people find pleasing (or they just need a justification for buying in because it looks really cool). I'll admit that analog saturation sounds a bit nicer than clipping but that's like saying that Herpes is better than Syphillis. They both suck, and tubes actually do more damage to the audio than other systems of audio reproduction. Just don't overdrive your damn music.

Why would you overdrive your amplifier?

Guitar amps

guitars - for listening to music? I have no idea

Most tube amps also fall into the category of being well made expensive placebo or self made placebo. I had one of the latter and it was the shit. It buzzed a little, and I got shocked a few times fixing it, and if you tapped the metal case it could be heard through headphones but nothing sounds quite as good as an amp you build yourself.

Schiit tube amps look decent.

They fall into the ungodly expensive tier.

vacuum tube guys claim it has a "warmer" sound.

This

>Schiit tube amps look decent

the look is the only thing decent about any schiit product

Which is nothing but a huge distortion created by 1800s tech, which at the same time they try to avoid.

They think guitar amps are the same as audio amps.