Tube question

i think it is more of the case of the "new tube sound", which is very resolving and much closer to solid state. circuits are designed today not to be tube sensitive so that it almost doesn't matter what tube you use.

the tube is less important than the circuit. the circuit compensates for the current stock of tubes.

tube gear sounds very different today than irt did 30 years ago, regardless of ehat tubes you use.

Warrenh, if you'll head over to www.vintagetubeservices.com you'll find page after page of historical insights ( & photos) offering glimpses into the manufacturing processes of bygone times. Modern tube manufacturers have sales ONLY to the musical instrument and audio market, they do not have the support of military, television, and radio markets that endowed manufacturers of the past with much greater resources. Yes, the Russians & Chinese are filling a market void, but to reach the heights of manufacturing prowess greats of the past achieved would require much greater investment in R&D, facilities, and worker training. The current size of the tube market doesn't make that greater investment a wise decision from a managerial perspective. If you were to quadruple your investment in manufacturing, you'd have to recoup that in greater sales volume or you're out of business.

EAT manufacturers audiophile tubes in the EC.
Very expensive but sounds as good as it gets...

D Visser

Right now the current Shuguang KT88 and 12AX7 are on par with the legends of audio.

But, as has been mentioned, in the past, when the military and commercial (telecommunications, radio/tv, computers) electronics industries relied on vacuum tubes as their lifeblood, the importance of building the best tubes possible was light years away from a niche industry that supplies guitarists (mostly) and audiophiles (not many of us).

I agree it has a lot to do with demand, but...
It also has a lot to do with the engineers today vs. in the past. Today, the best engineers are in semiconductors/solid state designs because that's where the money is. In the past, the state of the art was vacuum tube technology, so the best and brightest worked in those fields and the fields that supported them.