Who wants a vacuum tube amplifier?

[AlienTech]

Who woulda thought in this day and age people still use vacuum tubes? Yes there were vacuum tube computers in the very old ages. But transistors are IT. They consume a lot lot lot less power and switch much much much faster. You talk about gigahertz in transistors and well hertz for vacuum tubes. vacuum tubes are analog based devices while transistors are digital.

*www.extrememhz.com/Coolermaster/MusketeerIII/Big/IMG_0306.JPG

Several studies by engineers have shown that electrically, there is no difference in the outgoing signals between a transistor and a vacuum tube amplifier.

*www.extrememhz.com/musketeerIII-p1.shtml

I am not sure that is true... There is a difference in the curve...
Well now if you want an audio amp for your PC well here it is.. To give it that ancient look...

 

[Keith Sebastian]

AOpen has a motherboard with onboard sound that uses vacuum tubes. Have a look - *www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=6&id=522&pg=1

A true audiophile can spot the difference a tube amp makes. And, that includes me. Paired with a good set of speakers, tube amps sound warm and not harsh like solid-state (transistor) amps.

Keith

 

[pimpom]

When I first visited the link given by Keith and saw that the mobo used an 845 chipset and 4x AGP, I wondered why they used such an innovative product with such obsolete complements. Then I noticed that the review was done nearly 3 years ago. I wonder if AOpen has pursued the idea further.

Yes. it seems solid-state audio has never really managed to match vacuum tube sound. For some time I've been scrounging vacuum tubes from old electronics dealers who never got around to throwing out their old tube stocks. I've managed to collect tubes like ECC83 (12AX7), EL84, 6L6GC, etc. with the intention of building a tube amp for my own use and on custom order for local guitarists.

The biggest obstacle here is finding sockets for the tubes. This is really ironic as those sockets used to cost about one rupee each when tube-based products were still being mass-produced.