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SolidState TUBES

#42
Rick Auricchio said:
What I find more amazing than the actual devices is the fact that Jerrold and I had actually been in contact with Kirkwood Rough and his similar Vudu Tubes effort about 15 years ago...and we're both here!
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The internet has made a small world even smaller. But I still can't find my girlfriend from when I was 6 years old!
 
#43
mrkreuzschlitz said:
A high end racecar requires more maintenance than your typical Honda Civic, but which one runs better? ;) Same with amps. Some drivers (for example, Nascar Drivers) need that high end power that a racecar will delivier, while typical commuters will do fine with a cheap Honda.
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High end Concert Sound systems are always SS and have been for years. And they are very reliable and need litle if any maintenance.
 
#45
Sartori said:
And they're also designed to be so powerful as to always be loud enough without ever clipping.

Tubes color the sound a bit. With a PA, you don't really want that.
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I would take an opposing viewpoint with both statements. Tubes aren't inherently "colored." There are plenty of tube amps that have flat response. And I've heard stories of some amazing sounding PA's in the 60's using McIntosh tube power amps. The reason SS became the way for PA's is strictly a portability vs. power issue.
 
#46
JimmyM said:
I would take an opposing viewpoint with both statements. Tubes aren't inherently "colored." There are plenty of tube amps that have flat response. And I've heard stories of some amazing sounding PA's in the 60's using McIntosh tube power amps. The reason SS became the way for PA's is strictly a portability vs. power issue.
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Obviously not always the case.

Why would a venue that was permanently installing their PA care about portability, though?


More on topic though, I don't see anyone switching to these things in the video. They're expensive and tubes are cheap, and even if they did sound the same (which I'm very skeptical about), no one would believe that they do.
 
#47
Sartori said:
Obviously not always the case.

Why would a venue that was permanently installing their PA care about portability, though?
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They might not care about that, but they care about power needs, and it's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to get a 1000w SS power amp than 3 300w tube power amps. I submit to you that if they weighed the same and could put out the same amount of power in the package a SS amp comes in, we'd see a lot more PA's with tube power amps.
 
#49
vin*tone said:
Great.

Now I can get the tone of a solid state amp with the weight of a tube amp!

:hyper:
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HA! Reminds me of that sketch a long time ago on SNL where all these superheroes are having a party, and in comes Antman, who can shrink to the size of an ant and retain his human strength. John Belushi as the Hulk says to him, "I bet you're a real terror in the ant world."

Ya, I'm totally not feeling SS tubes.
 
#51
Interesting idea, but it seems to be a solution in search of a problem.

Yeah, you can get tubelike coloration and transfer characteristics with solid state devices (probably N-channel JFETs?).

IMO it would make more sense to design a ground-up circuit using off-the-shelf devices acting like glowFETs. But that's just my take on it.
 
#52
JimmyM said:
They might not care about that, but they care about power needs, and it's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to get a 1000w SS power amp than 3 300w tube power amps. I submit to you that if they weighed the same and could put out the same amount of power in the package a SS amp comes in, we'd see a lot more PA's with tube power amps.
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Perhaps so.

Lol, the idea of a 1000 watt tube power amp is so ridiculous but so cool.
 
#54
Sartori said:
More on topic though, I don't see anyone switching to these things in the video. They're expensive and tubes are cheap, and even if they did sound the same (which I'm very skeptical about), no one would believe that they do.
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If he can make "tubes" that sound identical to old Mullard and Telefunken valves there will be a market. The cost of production will go down and the price of NOS tubes will skyrocket.
 
#55
1970, the band GYPSY had a concert at my High School, which was way cool. They had multiple racks stacked full of a brand new amplifier I had never heard of before. It had two huge meters and said PHASE LINEAR 400 on each one.

Yeah I agree Bob, solution in search of a problem.

BOB
 
#56
Sartori said:
And they're also designed to be so powerful as to always be loud enough without ever clipping.

Tubes color the sound a bit. With a PA, you don't really want that.
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True
I'd expect to if you're going to bankroll a big name act you have to have reliable and consistent sound system. Which is why Markbass added a switch for "Long Life" or "Hi-Fi" mode. Marbass knows if you want HiFi you get less reliability.

With these SS tubes, I'm say they'd have to be very colored with no clean setting or no one would want them for sure. I don't think their target market would expect to clean up a tube amp for use in a PA.
 
#57
I watched the video on their website, and I gotta say, this guy doesn't sound at all like a nut job. I think it's a great idea, but there is that whole thing about how tube amps are tube amps BECAUSE THEY HAVE TUBES IN THEM.

Still, I'd like to see how they sound. Maybe its a good idea for the small theater touring bands who have to move alot of their own gear themselves and might want something they don't need to worry about??? I guess.
 
#58
If "reliabilty" is the main selling point with these fake tubes, why are we to believe the fake tubes are any more reliable than real tubes (which are plenty reliable enough and alot cheaper) ??

Solid state devices crap out all the time.
 
#60
Rick Auricchio said:
Yes, I recall Kirkwood telling me he (and a few colleagues) pitched their Vudu tubes to Ampeg.

I haven't spoken with him in about five years. He borrowed my amp to demo to some folks in the San Francisco Symphony who wanted compact combos. In return for borrowing my amp, he added the Jensen transformer DI.

BTW, I've run that little amp with an external cab instead of its small drivers and it's loud. The built-in 4x5 drivers worked well when I was playing small acoustic gigs.
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Back then, it seemed to be JUST Kirkwood himself...... IIRC he was working for a company in another electronic area, and was trying to do this as a side biz...

Now, for the nay sayers...... what's this solution in search of a problem thing?

What these new guys are doing I don't know..... but what KR was doing was actually NOT a 'Fetron"......

Anyhow, he had 'tubes" which needed no filament, and so no filament power, and no filament winding/transformer.

They did NOT have to work on 250V, they could give the same type performance at a much lower voltage.

They were NOT a 'tube simulation", they inherently had the characteristics of a tube.

So, what's "a solution in search of a problem" when you can make "tube amps" which have the same sound and playing characteristics but half or less the cost of an amp with glass tubes in it.... AND you will never need to spend a bunch of money on a replacement set of matched tubes?

Not to mention that in the coming "new energy world" things like tube amps will probably be banned....or taxed to death..... as horribly inefficient, wasteful, and selfish..........

Rick.... Do you have any contact info for KR? I know some folks who would like to talk to him.
 

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