22 years later vacuum tubes still available...

[Steve Smith]

The US made the best quality tubes.

Being British, I will have to cheer on the home team. Mullard!

I love the look of your amps, especially the Paramount.


Steve.

 

[Aurum]

Certainly got a sweet looking art deco thing going on with those cabinets.


Hmmm RCA vs Mullard, a bit like the Yellow box vs White box thing that goes on here.

 

[MattKing]

Just musing here...

If we are talking about audio amplifiers (as compared to guitar amplifiers), I've often wondered if the reason that tube amps sound good is that the distortion they add essentially compensates for the "flattening" effect of microphones and speakers.

In other words, even if they aren't as accurate electronically as solid state, the colour they add may offset the other effects of the amplification or recording and amplification process.

Matt

 

[rmazzullo]

check this out

At the bottom of the page (link is shown below) is a video of a gentleman in France who makes his own triodes. Shows you how he builds and processes them, piece by piece. He even makes his own tube bases from an injection mold (looks home built as well).

http://translate.google.com/transla...aude.free.fr/&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Bob M.

 

[Steve Smith]

A video of a gentleman in France who makes his own triodes.

That is fantastic. I was expecting a crude glass bubble with a few wires sticking out.

He's got a sellable product there.

His manufacturing equipment and jigs would make for some uniformity in a hand made product - very impressive.



Steve.

 

[rmazzullo]

But wait....there's MORE. (This you have to see.)

This particular page (link below) belongs to a woman who builds devices that can probably best be described as "electromechanics as art". Not taking into account the obvious military surplus she is restoring (check out those pages too), she has built her version of the Enigma machine ("the coding machine"), the antikythera mechanism, and a mechanical version of an X-Y plotter.

Aside from the electronic connectors, metal spheres, and "possibly" the switches, she makes every other component personally. Dials, gears, everything. This work is absolutely fantastic. She is in her 60's, and apparently has been at this since she was 14 (look for the photos of the hand built oscilloscope)....

http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/

this is a link to a photo of the encoding wheels (that she made) of the coding machine that she built:

http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/tvv1/pht23.html

(Maybe she'd be interested in taking a crack at emulsion mixing and delivery).

(edit) I forgot to mention that it would seem that she had to design an analog computer equivalent to make some of her creations a reality.

I am floored.

(end edit)

Bob M.