Solid State vs. Tubes - What if Transistors came first?

Interesting. Maybe it does catch on.

Google NuTube. Looks like things are still evolving.

"It was developed by Korg, the musical instrument maker, and Noritake, a manufacturer of vacuum fluorescent displays, in Japan"

from the internet. I would say this is just a gimic product. 

It is basically a preamp tube, very small directly heated wire cathode so that will have to be DC driven. The gain in circuit is 3.5 where a 12AX7 is typically 50. The max gains are 5 and 100 respectively.

Output distorts badly at 1 volt out and there is little current. I can’t imagine this entering any high end audio circuits, though it will be fun for the guitar players as it distorts and lights up.

And, 2016 came and went....

Tubes suck. -Lee Deforest⚰️

It is basically a preamp tube, very small directly heated wire cathode so that will have to be DC driven. The gain in circuit is 3.5 where a 12AX7 is typically 50. The max gains are 5 and 100 respectively.

Output distorts badly at 1 volt out and there is little current. I can’t imagine this entering any high end audio circuits, though it will be fun for the guitar players as it distorts and lights up.

There's already product using it other than Korg.

The military has been experimenting with filament-less (cold cathode) tubes in integrated circuits (entire opamps done with cold cathode tubes) for several decades now.

Can’t see de forest for de trees. 😛