The Surprisingly Long Life of the Vacuum Tube

Post by utopcell » Tue, May 12, 2026, 5:48 PM UTC

n_kr wrote: post #16

bregma wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. There is nothing in the digitally sampled and modelled world comparable to plugging your guitar into a hot over-driven tube amp and showing the feedback who's the boss. Pure analog transistors don't give that luscious even harmonic distortion and usually just clip like a meth-addled dog stylist in a poodle-grooming station.

As a guitarist with over 30 years of playing, and owner of many tube and non-tube amps, I disagree. Even experienced guitarist cannot reliably distinguish between transistor and tube circuits in a blind test. Having said that, if only the knowledge of playing a tube amp gives someone a better experience, even if its not empirically distinguishable, thats a perfectly valid reason to prefer it.

Post by adrian_b » Tue, May 12, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #21

adrian_b wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vacuum-tube amplifiers are not in the same class with techniques that are unlikely to have any perceptible influence on what you hear. Among amplifiers that are not perfectly neutral, vacuum-tube amplifiers subjectively seem more pleasant. Moreover, while an electronic audio amplifier made with modern components can be made perfectly neutral when terminated on a resistive load, i.e. it can reproduce any input signal…

> Vacuum-tube amplifiers are not in the same class with techniques that are unlikely to have any perceptible influence on what you hear. Yes, they are. The Carver Silver 7 was built to demonstrate this. [1] It's a tube amplifier with 38 tubes per channel that costs $17,000. It has all the important features - weighs 68Kg, vibration damping mounts, takes four minutes to power up, and the wiring is silver. Gets good re…

Post by GuinansEyebrows » Tue, May 12, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

chromacity wrote: post #9

I think this is an odd article. It mixes together a variety of technologies that have little in common (gas discharge tubes, CRTs). It doesn't really say anything about the operation of vacuum tubes, their advantages, or disadvantages. And doesn't even really support its own thesis. The reign of vacuum tubes lasted for less than the reign of the transistor and is in no way unusual in the world of electronics. There a…

Post by nolist_policy » Tue, May 12, 2026, 6:45 PM UTC

cogman10 wrote: post #11

chromacity wrote: post #9

I think this is an odd article. It mixes together a variety of technologies that have little in common (gas discharge tubes, CRTs). It doesn't really say anything about the operation of vacuum tubes, their advantages, or disadvantages. And doesn't even really support its own thesis. The reign of vacuum tubes lasted for less than the reign of the transistor and is in no way unusual in the world of electronics. There a…

There's really not benefits to vacuum tubes pretty much anywhere. The only place I can think of where they are superior (which may not be true anymore) is high power transmission in, for example, radio and radar towers. In all other applications transistors will be superior. Especially because any problem from a transistor can be fixed by adding more transistors until the problem is gone or imperceptible. The audioph…

Post by cogman10 » Tue, May 12, 2026, 7:20 PM UTC

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #17

cogman10 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's really not benefits to vacuum tubes pretty much anywhere. The only place I can think of where they are superior (which may not be true anymore) is high power transmission in, for example, radio and radar towers. In all other applications transistors will be superior. Especially because any problem from a transistor can be fixed by adding more transistors until the problem is gone or imperceptible. The audioph…

Eh. As far as instrument amps go, it's not about perfect fidelity. It's about color and distortion. You'd never say "perfectly white lights are the best for your living room." No one actually wants a perfect white light, people want some more yellow in there because it looks better. The goal isn't equal spectrum coverage or whatever. People like the non-linearity of tubes and that's ok.