Octave Audio Jubilee

Way back in the age when Stereophile’s print magazine was the size of a theater playbill, common wisdom declared that the tube preamp was the ideal complement to solid state amplification.

- JASON VICTOR SERINUS

That axiom was rooted in two assumptions: (1) Tube equipment produces softer, warmer, more flowing and pleasing sound than solid state, and (2) transistor-based devices need some softening because their sound is often hard, brittle, and mechanical. The trope was the high-end audio equivalent of the yin/yang stereotype that depicts women as soft, gentle, pliable, and flowing and men hard, harsh, and unyielding. Godzilla the Hun weds the Celestial Mermaid.

Over the past few decades, advances facilitated by research, computer modeling, and higher-quality parts have helped transcend the tube-vs-solid state dichotomy. Most of the solid state amps that I've reviewed in the past decade have delivered sound I consider organic and musical. While each had its strengths and shortcomings, the majority sang in a unique voice and achieved brute force and delicacy with equal aplomb. While my opportunities to review tube amps and preamps have been fewer, almost all the differently voiced tube components I’ve reviewed have also produced organic, full-range sound distinguished by dynamic attacks and delicate details.

Apparently not everyone has shared my experience. Take, for example, Andreas Hofmann, the owner and chief engineer of Octave Audio of Germany. When I Zoomed with Hofmann and John Quick, VP of sales and marketing at Dynaudio USA, Octave's US distributor, to discuss the Jubilee Hybrid, Octave's flagship linestage preamplifier ($42,000; $45,500 with optional stepped attenuator), Hofmann asserted his belief that tubes deliver superior sound.

Which leaves the ball, as it were, in my court. How does music reproduced through the Jubilee preamp sound, and how does it make me feel?

Exploring the Jubilee