Why Can't Tubes Be Mass-Produced Cheaply?

I've also wondered about this. Audiophiles are willing to pay enourmous amounts for cartridges, interconnects ...etc.

Could another reason be that the older tubes used materials or processes that could be considered hazardous thus they couldn't be manufactured anyhow?

My mother was the one of the highest paid workers on the Sylvania tube assembly line for many years. She could do all the jobs from start to finish and would train the new workers. She worked there from 1943 to 1957. She is 83 now.

You guys will cry because she says they use to throw out tubes that were absolutely perfect in every way, except the Sylvania printed label on the glass or the base was crooked, smeared, incomplete, etc. Too late to fish through their trash...LOL !!

The quality standards that Sugarbrie attributes to his Mom is exactly why tubes of that era were so special. The Germans, Dutch, British and Americans were all doing their absolute best to build the ultimate tubes that could be manufactured.

Back then tubes were necessary to the survival of all radio, TV, broadcast, civilian and military aircraft, as well as military communications, guidance systems, radar, computers and more.

Just think about it, tubes were even required for movie theatres, PA systems, TV broadcast stations, electronic organs for church, ham operators, test equipment and medical diagnostics.

Automobile radio's back then even required tubes, most 7-11 grocery and Radio Shack stores had a tube tester by the door and drawers of replacements for their customers. (Radio Shack even sold Telefunken, not kidding).

To make a point, look at the competition today between AMD, Intel, Texas Instruments and others that build high tech chips. It's a big business and quality, consistency, speed and dependability determines who wins and who looses.

That's the status tubes held during those times, equally important to consumers, big business and the military as high tech chips are today. Add in the fact that everyone took a lot of pride in workmanship and you have an era of very special circumstances that produced a product that will never be again.

Thanks for all responses. Now I understand why tubes manufactured in the 'golden' era can no longer be the same again.

Sometimes it strikes my mind that in an event the old tubes come to an extinction, there has got to be a source to produce quality tubes that are comparable to the golden era although manufacturing skills have eroded due to small market today. Or maybe the rare tubes from the 60's are still in large numbers and won't go into extinction any time too soon? At the end of the day, I guess everything will come to an end, and the limited(sic) number of good old tubes will be depleted in due time.

Don't sell current production tubes short. In many cases these can be as good and even better than high dollar NOS tubes. There are always exceptions, but I have found that the NOS tubes I have tried ended up rolling off the highs and/or lows.