Why so many tubes?


Many of the most expensive tube amps/preamp have multiple tubes...6, 8, 10. If direct path is preferred in the speaker by most, why the acceptance of a glass army in one's amp/preamp? 
jpwarren58
@jpwarren58
And I am open to SS to being more complicated.

You do not need to “be open to it”… just pull the lid off one, and like Rev:6 “come and see”.

There's a 50cc class of racing motorbikes. Back in the 50s and 60s it became all about how many cylinders you could get to displace only 50cc. Things got real small and because things really didn't weigh all that much revs were over 20,000! So they put a stop to it and 50cc is now limited to one cylinder.


In the audio world this would be akin to using a lot of really small tubes to make an amp but it would be a really poor analogy.


Yeah but Ralph you are Da Man with stuff like this so I have to ask, what about going the other way? Why not use one great big high power tube? The reason I ask is some guys I respect are going that way with SET and real happy with it. Of course everything else still matters too but might there some inherent advantage to using fewer tubes?

@jpwarren58

Not a troll thread at all. Seems like a complicated way to reproduce music.
please enlighten us, what would be a simpler way?

So some of tubes are the same as the power transformers?

https://splice.com/blog/vacuum-tubes-in-music/

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transformer/audio-transformer.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_audio_amplifier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj3LNHqUt3A

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/building-a-valve-amplifier-part-1-design-components-and-layout

as you posted the original query, hope you have the patience to absorb the info above for some basic knowledge on the subject