Rod Beauvex
Look at the tiny bunny...
I noticed that while tubes pretty much vanished for the most part by the early to mid sixties in hifi audio, they hung around well into the seventies in things like televisions. Why is this?
Tubes in Audio and video.
- Thread starter Rod Beauvex
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ferninando
Lunatic Member
tvs were solid state except the tube in 70s and beyond. lcd/plasma not invented yet.
They had tubes in the GE Portacolor until around 1980.
Any number of reasons to keep producing tube based TVs:
They had an existing reliable design and a large supply of tubes?
Contracts with tube production companies?
Appealed to some customers who didn’t trust solid state yet?
Any number of reasons to keep producing tube based TVs:
They had an existing reliable design and a large supply of tubes?
Contracts with tube production companies?
Appealed to some customers who didn’t trust solid state yet?
FalconEddy
Audio Mastering Engineer
Actually, tubes in the early to mid sixties were in super high gear as far as hifi audio was concerned. Fisher, Scott, McIntosh, Eico, Dynaco, Sherwood, Marantz, Heathkit, Bogen, Citation, Westinghouse, and Knight (to name a few).
Plus, mostly all instrument amplifiers. . . Matchless, Fender, Gibson, etc.
AND organ amplifiers for Hammond, Baldwin, Conn, Lowrey, Allen, etc.
. . Falcon
klama2006
Super Member
TV's used them well past the 70's.
Tubes used to be in everything, they were necessary. Eventually people saw solidstate as progress (You will never have to change a tube again).
For many of those who have never had a chance to listened to a a tube stereo, it can sound pretty good. There sound qualities are preferred to my ears, I like the coloration they provide.
Tubes used to be in everything, they were necessary. Eventually people saw solidstate as progress (You will never have to change a tube again).
For many of those who have never had a chance to listened to a a tube stereo, it can sound pretty good. There sound qualities are preferred to my ears, I like the coloration they provide.
StevieDude
Well-Known Member
I agree totally! I am hooked on tube gear because of how it sounds to my ears but imho it's not for everyone. I have a friend who has just about 40K invested in his hifi and it is all solid state and digital technology. He loves it and I am happy for him but when I leave after listening to his gear, I am always glad to get back to my hot bottle system and I only have about a third invested in mine as what he has. There are some solid state amps out there that I would like to own myself like one of the Denon PMA integrated amps. To me, those have the warmth of a tube system but the slam of a solid state one. To each his own!
There were a lot of hybrid TVs around inthe 70s. Solid state tuner and video sections, tube based sweep and HV segments. Basically it was a matter of the tubes to do the job existed, while transistors to run at those frequencies and voltage levels did not. Earlier on, you'd see the opposite with tuners. Tube front ends, transistor power amps. The transistors of the early 60s just did not work well at FM radio frequencies.
