| Author | Message | ||
     New12r |
http://www.rothaudio.co.uk/docs/products/mc4.shtml Thought this was pretty neat! I will have a full tube audio system one day, I love the way they make music. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Man, that's awesome. I still have a Dynaco SCA-35 tube amp I assembled from a kit when I was in high school. It's not high-end by any means, but it's a decent little amp (~17.5 watts RMS/channel). I found out quite a few people play around with upgrading them for better sound; kits are available. I'll have to get around to that one of these days... | ||
| New12r |
That dynaco is still a great little amp, put a really efficient full range driver with it and you got some beautiful music! | ||
| Igneroid |
I dont have any tube Hi fi gear but all my guitar amps(mesa boogie single recto ,Marshall 30 aniv., and soon to be purchased Voodoo Amps 10 watt Witch doctor) are tube designs. My buddie has a tube cd player and even for my deaf old ears, it sounds better than my cd player. Good stuff. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Trust me guys, the transistor thingy is just a fad. Too many odd order harmonics. They'll never get decent sound out of them. Am I right, my brothers?  | ||
| Jlnance |
I loved tubes when I was in high school. They were outdated even then. I had no idea they would be fashionable again. I've got a huge box of 12A6 tubes in my garage. I should build something.  | ||
| Hughlysses |
I've got a huge box of 12A6 tubes in my garage. I should build something. How about a tube ECM for your Uly?  It'd probably look about like Spock's mnemonic memory circuit from "City on the Edge of Forever". | ||
| Hughlysses |
Trust me guys, the transistor thingy is just a fad. Too many odd order harmonics. They'll never get decent sound out of them. Am I right, my brothers? If they ever figure out how to make one without transformers that weigh as much as miniature anvils, I think you'd be right. I occasionally lust for an all-tube bass amp, then I see that the latest generation of SS bass amps are getting ~500 watts out of a ~6 pound amp. Man, it'd be nice to tote your whole rig in to a gig in one trip. | ||
| Lastcyclone |
 I was a pretty big fan, but that was in the 80's. I thought they split up? | ||
| Vegasbueller |
I just built up a really nice tube preamp for a recording studio in Prescott Az. People still like the way they sound! | ||
| Jlnance |
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| Hughlysses |
Cool! The mnemonic memory circuit/custom race tube-powered ECM! | ||
| Gmc310 |
I have an old telefunken from Germany , must be 40 years old and sounds good too,G | ||
| New12r |
I have an old telefunken from Germany They built some sweet amps. Tube amps are still sold NEW today, Conrad Johnson, VTL(my personal fav), Macintosh and many others. I used to sell Hi Fi from 2001 to 2004, fun stuff! | ||
| Hughlysses |
In addition to the amps, there's huge interest in the tubes themselves. New tubes are still made in the former USSR and China, but people are paying through the nose for vintage tubes from the U.S. and Europe. People talk about using specific brands of tubes to alter the sound of their amps (both the musical instrument and home audio variety). It hasn't been THAT long ago that you could go down to the corner drug store with your questionable tubes and try them out in their tube tester machine, and buy replacements right there. Speaking of which, those tube tester machines are also highly sought-after. | ||
| Jlnance |
I rode out to the Voice of America transmitter site in Greensboro, NC once and asked for a tour. They had a tube in the lobby about the size of my desk. Real tubes have cooling water connections It was an interesting tour. I think they were running either 500KW or 1MW transmitters. Everything was super sized. The antenna farm was fantastic. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Real tubes have cooling water connections. I'm pretty sure Erik Buell is on record saying he'll never produce a water-cooled tube amplifier... Seriously, that's pretty cool. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I work at IET labs and we still make some equipment that uses tubes. I work on the 1864 and 1863 line and they each have one triode tube inside for the voltage regulator. If you're going for ultra low ripple high voltage DC, a tube is really hard to beat. | ||
| Vegasbueller |
The Soviets still make tubes because....they still use tubes! Part of the Soviet Union's air dense radar and many missile systems still use that technology due to the fact (stated by their engineers) that tube powered equipment is not as easily damaged or affected by post nuclear EMP or radiation. And...well Sovetek and JJ Tesla still make some sweet sounding tubes! | ||
| Vegasbueller |
I can't help but show you what I listen to when I am in the shop:  BC 312 from a B-17 bomber. It still works great!  R220. Vietnam war vintage. Weighs about 125 pounds, 20+ tubes. One of my favorites! I even listen to local FM stations on it. Mounted above these radios is a Hallicrafters tube powered Short Wave radio. All of toys are tube powered with the exception of 1 2Meter radio that I use to talk on locally. | ||
| Djkaplan |
I love my Fender tube amp. Two 6L6 and three 12AX7 tubes, all Russian made, btw, in my Fender HotRod DeLuxe...  | ||
| Djkaplan |
I've got two of these old 6 volt Ford tube radios from 1955...  I was told they probably broke down in 1956 and haven't worked since. I thought I could get one working if I got two of them, but now I just have two broken radios. I put one in anyway... it's right next to the broken clock in the dash. (Message edited by djkaplan on December 04, 2007) | ||
| Vegasbueller |
Daniel: do a search for Sams PhotoFacts for the model radio you have. It will go a long way towards helping you fix it. If you don't mind the wait, I'd be happy to have a look at it when I get my shop set up after the move. Nick | ||
| Hughlysses |
Those old tube car radios are pretty cool. They use a gizmo called a vibrator (alright- get your mind out of the gutter) to produce A/C current so it can be transformed to the voltage required for the tube filaments. The vibrator is basically a solenoid powered switch that continuously reverses the polarity from the 6V DC power to the radio. So you end up with 6V AC power, which can be transformed to whatever voltage you need. Pretty clever solution. You can usually hear the vibrator humming if it's working. Sometimes it needs a good thump to get it started. There used to be an outfit that advertised in Hemmings Motor news that would rebuild any complete tube car radio for about ~$100 (that was ~20 years ago). They did the one for my Hudson and it worked great. | ||
| Xandersam |
A buddy of mine used to work for McIntosh Labs and had a killer setup until it got stolen  It was a great old system. | ||
| Djkaplan |
I appreciate the offer. I hope I can get around to it one day. Remember when you could go into a hardware store and see that big tube testing machine with all the plugins?  That was when Old School' meant my dad, not me... like it does now. Remember the 'wireless' system we used back then for our tube TV's...  ... and how you'd be sent out in the middle of a program to spin it around for better reception? | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
I collect vintage radios and jukeboxes. I have given some thought to the whole tube versus solid state debate and I wonder if some of the perceived sound quality of tube devices is not due to the emotional high I get when I fire up one of those old radios/jukes. The wonder of who and where and what was played on those old boxes. The nostalgia factor can't be ignored. It is similar to when I swing a leg over my Buell xB. Despite the shortcomings of the Buell, I still get a rush every time I ride. | ||
| Rocketman |
I'm a little bit into my quality sounds, and I'm always reminded of when I bought a used Linn Sondek LP12 back in 1987. CD's were starting to take off in a big way, but classical music was where CD's were already at. Which is why I was buying a used LP12 off a retired university professor. He'd bought himself a Revox CD player some time previously. His reason been, at his age his ears were not capable of arguing the merits in favour either way for high end vinyl reproduction or a superior (for the time) CD player. Given the hammering my ears have taken over the years, and no I'm not deaf, I wonder how good we humans are at really telling 'the difference'. Adds a whole new train of thought to hi-fi reviews, lol. Rocket | ||
| Cereal |
$749?  | ||
| New12r |
Given the hammering my ears have taken over the years, and no I'm not deaf, I wonder how good we humans are at really telling 'the difference'. Adds a whole new train of thought to hi-fi reviews, I can sit you down with two systems and if you cant hear the difference, you are not listening. I have thought about that alot, and have sat down a few folks who claimed to be "deaf" and they came away astonished. |
