Manufacturers don't get it. make tubes visible.


After all of this time, why don't manufacturers get it? Everyone I talk to who owns tube gear wants to see, at the very least, the power tubes while the gear is operational. Many want to see the preamp tubes as well. So why do so many great manufacturers still bury the tubes inside of the gear? Are they afraid we will electrocute ourselves? And, if this is true, who is going to miss a few deranged audiophiles anyway, not to mention their wayward offspring and badly trained pets? Interestingly, large transmitting tubes which pose, by far, the greatest danger, are almost always out in the wind.
128x128viridian
Tubes are generally more prone to microphonics when they are exposed. For this reason alone, they should be inside the chassis.
Well I have the opposite problem. While I don't have an issue looking at exposed tubes (it does not excite me either though), my wife does. She never complains about the $$$ I spend, so I do try to make some aesthetic accomodations. I have tubes in my system, but carefully hidden. :)

Cheers,
John
It's not the audiophiles. We would be no loss. It's the little ones who are curious and want to touch everything.
I do agree I hate to see tubes hidden.
Maybe your favorite manufacturer doesn't expose tubes but there are many that do. Cary, Audio Research, Quicksilver, Wavelength, Fi, to name a few. If you include used or older items that list grows to include VTL, and C-J.
For those that enjoy the glow of the 'fire-bottles', what is it about seeing the tubes that you enjoy? Does it beckon back to our caveman ancestry of sitting around the fire?

Just curious.....
John