Vacuum tubes are making a comeback.

[Spupilup]

I did get a hold of two cherry Studer/Revox B710's, which is about the only other deck that could give a Dragon a run for it's money.

I remember auditioning whatever was the top of the line Revox deck at Innovative Audio in Brooklyn Heights back in the '80's. It sounded wonderful. I went home with a Dragon (I think it was $1999 back in '86 or '87) because, to my ear, it sounded every bit as good AND was much easier to use. Both were head and shoulders above anything that Tandberg was offering at the time.

 

[jamro217]

I use a tube preamp and a SS amp. Best of both worlds, but the preamp still needs tubes. (That's not the same rig as the blackface Fender Showman which is all tubes.) I read somewhere on here (TB) that anything coming in from Russia is banned now including tubes. That puts a crimp in the market.

 

[Spupilup]

Well then, there is also this: Western Electric - Maker of electron tubes and high fidelity

Rossville Works Manufacturing Facility — Western Electric - Maker of electron tubes and high fidelity

The 300B tubes are only $700 apiece, and the 97A monoblock amps they are advertising go for a mere $124,999.00 a pair! Yikes!

I'll stick with my collection of vintage Dynacos.

Back in the '90's I was deep into triodes. When WE announced they were recreating the 300B many of us were thrilled at the prospect of a brand new, US made WE 300B. They were $1000 for a matched pair when they were released, ensconced in a beautiful cherry box. That was cheaper than any NOS WE 300B you might have been able to wrestle from a Japanese audiophile back in those days!

I put my matched 300B's into a pair of Wavelength Cardinal mono blocks pumping out 7 glorious watts per channel!!!

Being an audiophile is a sickness that makes GAS seem quaint.

 

[gln1955]

The US needs to get back on top in the semiconductor industries. We need to rely on ourselves, and not rely on other countries supplying critical technologies. We need new experts in the semiconductor industries right here in the US.

Semiconductors are a fad. We can't afford to fall behind in vacuum tube technology.

 

[Patrice B]

Thoroidals.

Sorry, I re-read again correctly: switching power supplies! I have a JT amps tube di box with one of those.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Anyway, there is basically *nothing* tubes do that can't be replicated with solid stage technology¹ (employing digital modelling, if necessary). The only thing that is not tube-related but truly imparts a "vintage" tone is the elevated output impedance, which essentially changes the frequency response of the amp according to the speaker's impedance curve. You can achieve this even with solid state power amps (not sure about Class D power amps, but you certainly can do this with traditional AB power amps). You can even retrofit an existing power amp with a very simple circuit to increase the output impedance of the power amp to replicate this "coupling" of amp and speaker. (Essentially, you will get a fatter and possibly brighter sound since the amp will essentially respond to the speaker's impedance curve; this tends to work poorly with bass reflex speakers).

¹ digital models almost always go for a rough approximation in order to make the emulation practical performance-wise. You can make the emulation more faithful, but... There are lots of subtle behaviours that can be proven not to make any discenible difference to the user, so you can forgo implementing these behaviours.

Nah. I've tried most modeling systems and they don't come close to the attack of actual tube power sections.
And my dad was an electronic engineer...we had this debate several times. I have no real interest in the charted sine wave pattern which is supposed to please my ear. I'm interested in the actual pleasure of my ear.

 

[Patrice B]

I’m leaning towards a brand new Heritage SVT-CL, but I’m not opposed to saving some money and buying a new SVT-CL Classic.

But I also just “discovered” the Costello Black Mark head, and I’m also considering it. It looks like the 300 watt model is in the same price range as the HSVT-CL.

Also, don’t forget the Reeves Custom 225 and Custom 400.

 

[Patrice B]

But, but...what am I ever going to do with my tube tester?

View attachment 5026061

Send it to me… I’ll dispose of it carefully .

**I own two tubes testers BTW.

 

[bobyoung53]

What are the environmental issues? The only one I can find is thorium, but the production of rare earth magnets produces mountains of thorium waste.

Is silicon a clean industry?

Thorium is not used very often in tubes, only directly heated cathodes IIRC.

 

[IamGroot]

Tubes brands with possible supply chain issues (Thanks to Patrice for update)

Northern Electric
Prefeered Electric
Psvane
Reflektor,
SED SPb/J.S.C. Svetlana
Ulyanov,
JSC Voskhod
Novosibirsk
SESHUGUANG TUBES (out of business)
SED WINGED "C" TUBES (Out of Business)
Sovtek
Svetlana
Tung Sol
Some Groove Tubes

 

[rutabaga bob]

I'm long past owning tube amps for guitar or bass. I still see people giving away older organs - for free, usually. You can harvest quite a few tubes from those oldies and some people have spares on hand.
I'd suggest snapping up tubes anywhere you can find them. New ones, if you find any, are going to be very expensive.

I snagged a bunch from an old Lowrey organ several years ago; Lowrey-branded tubes. If you bought enough tubes the manufacturer would custom brand them for you. These are RCA-made tubes, by the way.

 

[Patrice B]

Tubes brands with possible supply chain issues

Northern Electric
Prefeered Electric
Psvane
Reflektor,
SED SPb/J.S.C. Svetlana
Ulyanov,
JSC Voskhod
Novosibirsk
SESHUGUANG TUBES
SED WINGED "C" TUBES
Sovtek
Svetlana
Tung Sol
Some Groove Tubes

Shuguang (factory fire) and Winged C are no longer…

 

[ac100X]

As far as I know the AD-200B Mk III is the current version of the Orange bass amp and that has been around for more than a decade.

Your right, I 'm not good with names. Well this amp. I believe it has tubes....

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Also, don’t forget the Reeves Custom 225 and Custom 400.

The Reeves Custom 225 is definitely on my list too.

 

[ardgedee]

As for the potential of vacuum tubes as something more than a stagnant technology kept alive for antiquarian purposes:

There's the Noritake Itron Nutube which claims to have the sonic attributes of a triode tube at a low level of heat and power consumption. Korg has been putting it into effects pedals and synthesizers, and it's getting some uptake in mobile high-end audio, although I have no idea whether that segment is using for actual high quality FRFR audio reproduction or because it can add "tube-like" distortion or a "warm" eq. I have my guesses though.

There's also this interesting article from IEEE Spectrum about the potential for vacuum tube designs on integrated circuits. One major upside would be there's no need for a vacuum envelope around the device (basically it operates at a scale too small for that to matter) but there are a few significant downsides (including the article being almost 9 years old and I'm not aware of any updates around the research). Also it would probably have no relevance to audio amplification.

 

[bdplaid]

Western Electric announced some time ago they are trying to manufacture common tubes in the Rossville GA plant.

Reshoring Vacuum Tube Manufacturing, One Tube At A Time

One Man’s Quest to Revive the Great American Vacuum Tube

 

[dbsfgyd1]

First, Hammond didn’t make their own tubes, neither did ANY amp or musical instrument manufacturer.

Second, you are grossly underestimating the fixed cost of manufacturing vacuum tubes. To set up a new production line for a tube family like the 12A_7 with materials handling, tooling, glass works OC test lab, production machinery, building and permits would run probably around $10M. This has to be amortized over the life of the production. MI demand for these tubes is simply not high enough to justify that kind of investment. This is in addition to the cost of materials, overhead and labor for manufacturing the tubes.

Older style tubes are an even worse business model, the demand is hundreds of times too low to justify manufacturing.

And to your point, the main reason I sold my all tube amp.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I don't see a comeback.

Unless it was hired in for a festival, I've not seen a tube bass amp on a gig this century. There are still a few SS amps out there, doing good service, but D class is ruling the market.

I bought an all tube head about two years ago and gigged with it for a little better than a year. I sold it last year, mainly because the tubes it ran on were worth more than the amp itself. Further, between you and me, it sounded kind of blah…

 

[Ronnie Thunders]

Operation saturation

 

[Hoochie Coochie Man]

Why is the master volume on that thing barely turned up?