Why are there no tube televisions anymore?


It’s funny when you come to think of it and compare video with audio. How come in the audio world discussions sometimes become intense, while there seem to be far less intense discussions in the TV & video realm?

With TV’s there’s no talk on tubes, transistors, analog, digital, vinyl, cables, power cords, heck we can even get ’audio’ fuses and -USB cables.

No one has a tube TV (while they really have a ’warmer’ image :) and very few people use a $400 power cord with their TV set. And while there are expensive HDMI cables on the market, the vast majority uses one below $50. And no one spends money on floor spacers to avoid cable vibrations.

Our eyes may even be far more sensitive than our ears ... yet discussions are far less intense. How come?


rudyb
Rudy, technology dies when it is ousted by better technology.
viz horse and cart vs car
     CRT vs flat screen
     VCR vs DVD
     bow and arrow vs rapid fire automatic rifle
     etc.

Valves and vinyl have not been driven from the market because there are no newer technologies that are clearly better.

See also:  oil painting on canvas, the violin, most other musical instruments.  After all the electric violin was consigned to Desolation Row.


Sound is created through mechanical actions, ie. vibrations. Audio begins with the microphone and ends with the speaker. Everything in between matters but is not seen. Same with video: it begins with light and ends with light. Everything in between matters but is unseen. Wow! Must have been that cheesecake last night.
My point is no matter the technological advances audio will always begin and end with electromechanical interfaces and video with electro optical. 
Perhaps consider also that today’s TV take up much less room, produce almost no heat, come in many more sizes for convenience, at almost every price point look better, use way less energy and are able to display higher quality images than earlier technologies. TV are mass market and world wide items. By comparison the audiophile market is tiny. Almost every aspect of video delivery to the user is also regulated and homogenized to one size fits all by the government. If we look at it from the hardware side, audio is one of the few product lines where technologies doing essentially the same thing exist side by side in the marketplace. Audio is quite unique.
   +1 mitch2, I have one of the older Panasonic plasmas . It was their top level set when I bought it. The two best TV’s at the time were the Panasonic and the Pioneer elite. After enjoying my brother in laws Fujitsu plasma for a couple years I pulled the trigger on the Panasonic. I had a couple of the last Sony CRT’s a big console and the later wide screen tabletop. Both excellent sets. I still have the plasma, and a new Sony and a Visio. The Sony is in the gym and the Visio does summers  in  the den and winters in the bedroom. The Sony is passable and the Visio is crap. If I wanted a top tier new TV I’d go Samsung. It would have been interesting if the industry continued to develop the CRT. BTW that Fujitsu was about $6K and my Panasonic went on sale for $3500 so I saw it as a good buy at the time. Going back in time my dad ( long deceased ) was a TV fan. I remember when he ponied up $1K for a Mitsubishi 4 head VCR. At the time it was amazing. Looking back it was the Nakamichi Dragon of VCR’s. Years later my friend was using a similar Mitsubishi to record and play audio from vinyl in his system. I run a power filter, cord and upgraded cables on my plasma. It was a very slight but noticeable difference. It seems that my old conditioner and cables went on the TV, Vs going into the extras box in the spare closet. In closing you’ve made me curious. My ?????  is currently flying an F-18 Hornet. Between the plane and the carrier I’ll have to ask him about the monitors. Last year I had the opportunity to fly/ crash in their simulator at the base. It was an amazing two minutes of total confusion. Most of the systems were turned off due to being top secret, but I’ll have to revisit the equipment in regards to the screens. Regards, Mike.