yogiboy - Thanks. I'd read about that new source in FL, but it had slipped my memory. I understand that his pricing is going to be tough to swallow, but price is not always a deterrent if you live in the land of hi-end audio. Hope that's your home address.
For the record, do be assured that it's quite possible to precisely replicate that "warm" tube sound with a solid state power amplifier design, if that's what you prefer. Indeed, famed circuit designer Bob Carver once collected on a bet with Stereophile by demonstrating exactly that.
Nothing it the cited article changes what i said. There is no world market for vacuum tubes other than the demand created by a relatively small group of hi-end audiophiles who feel that their aural perception is more sensitive than all of the available test instrumentation. They want to see filaments glow. And that's their right. But it's dicey to gamble that tubes will continue to exist, at ANY price, over the course of another decade.
For the record, do be assured that it's quite possible to precisely replicate that "warm" tube sound with a solid state power amplifier design, if that's what you prefer. Indeed, famed circuit designer Bob Carver once collected on a bet with Stereophile by demonstrating exactly that.
Nothing it the cited article changes what i said. There is no world market for vacuum tubes other than the demand created by a relatively small group of hi-end audiophiles who feel that their aural perception is more sensitive than all of the available test instrumentation. They want to see filaments glow. And that's their right. But it's dicey to gamble that tubes will continue to exist, at ANY price, over the course of another decade.