Back in the old days, when tubes were in everything, there were a number of tube manufacturers that built tubes of all kinds, for types of applications. Because of this, tube manufacturers could easily build a specific flavor of a tube number to match the requirements of the device builder or customer, such as the military. Now that low power tubes are considered obsolete for the most part, the existence of a number high-quality tube manufacturing plants is simply not cost justifiable anymore. Tubes are such a specialty item, practically no one these days is willing to invest the big money to start a plant to build low-power tubes that will be sold only to a very limited audiophile market. For that reason, that orange label Amperex 6DJ8 that now sells for whatever the market will bring, used to sell for about $2.50 each back when tubes were in everything from car radios to TVs to broadcast equipment to test equipment. The reason you still see new Russian tubes being made is because the USSR used tube electronics long after the rest of the world went solid state.
Tube question
I'm new to tubes, but there is a couple of things (well more than a couple, but for now): Why, with all of our modern technology, is it that we cannot make a tube with the sound quality of the ones in the late 50s to early 70s. What was it about that time, that we cannot seem to duplicate that quality today. I never, when hearing the scoop about great tubes, hear any new tube manufacturers being mentioned. Are there Chinese, Russian, American or the like, companies making very high quality sounding and constructed tubes? thanks in advance. warren
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- 35 posts total
- 35 posts total