We ran tube-based regulation for years. I'm as a big a fan of tubes as anybody, but when we developed a proprietary regulator for high voltage, it was **immediately** so much better than the tube circuits that there was no going back.
There are a lot of factors in a regulated power supply! Essentially the regulators behave as a sort of power amplifier that you are listening to. They have to be very linear and wide bandwidth to really work right. The problem we ran into with the tube regulators is that bandwidth is a real problem. The result is right now that our regulators function with wide bandwidth and about 2 orders of magnitude less noise than is possible with tube regulators.
I'm not saying that tube regulation is all done in, but some innovation needs to occur before it can keep up with a **properly designed** solid state regulator.
There are a lot of factors in a regulated power supply! Essentially the regulators behave as a sort of power amplifier that you are listening to. They have to be very linear and wide bandwidth to really work right. The problem we ran into with the tube regulators is that bandwidth is a real problem. The result is right now that our regulators function with wide bandwidth and about 2 orders of magnitude less noise than is possible with tube regulators.
I'm not saying that tube regulation is all done in, but some innovation needs to occur before it can keep up with a **properly designed** solid state regulator.