msalama
Poster Extraordinaire
A highly interesting presentation of U.S. tube manufacture and its demise.
History of Vacuum Tube Manufacturing in the US From WWII to the End - Destruction of the US Consumer Electronics Industry
- Thread starter msalama
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Long_Ghost
Tele-Holic
I would like to see a fancy, schmancy boutique tube company come about with a high quality and long lived product, but
after reading the presentation above I believe only Elon Musk could pull it off.
after reading the presentation above I believe only Elon Musk could pull it off.
msalama
Poster Extraordinaire
I'm willing to bet he's not interested, and even if he was, the end product would be prohibitively expensive.
pmjennin
Tele-Meister
I would have appreciated some actual text instead of just a bunch of bullet points.
SnidelyWhiplash
Poster Extraordinaire
Tubes are antiquated technology. If anyone were going to invest in tech, they would be better served going into semiconductors.
maxvintage
Poster Extraordinaire
Why in the world would Musk dump tons of money into reviving a basically obsolete industry?
It would likely be the sonic equivalent of the CyberTruck.
maxvintage
Poster Extraordinaire
I think Musk should save the Fountain Pen industry!
I teach a class on the history of digital audio. I show an educational film from WWII about all the wonderful things tubes can do. It's impressive, and then I point out that every single thing tubes do in the film can be done by transistors at far less cost with far more durability and vastly more efficiency, and at mind bogglingly smaller size
I teach a class on the history of digital audio. I show an educational film from WWII about all the wonderful things tubes can do. It's impressive, and then I point out that every single thing tubes do in the film can be done by transistors at far less cost with far more durability and vastly more efficiency, and at mind bogglingly smaller size
Blrfl
Friend of Leo's
Western Electric will sell you a matched pair of high-quality 300Bs for $1,500. Have at it.
msalama
Poster Extraordinaire
Ya gets what ya pays for.
arlum
Friend of Leo's
I beg to differ. Vacuum tubes are still in use. Here's a couple of links to more articles on this subject.
Vacuum Tubes: The World Before Transistors - Engineering.com
What are vacuum tubes, how do they work, and who still uses them?
www.engineering.com 
The Cool Sound of Tubes
One of the last remaining tube domains is in music applications, but there the devices flourish and even innovate
spectrum.ieee.org What we need is a tube amplifier lover winning a record Powerball or Mega Millions more than willing to invest in tube manufacturing within the U.S.A. If she or he could come up with 50% of the startup costs I'm almost sure there are multiple Rock Stars, Amplifier collectors, etc. who would buy in for a share. Don't think of it as a business with huge growth potential. Rather .... think of it as a business that maintains a steady production of a small variety of necessary parts targeting musicians and audiophiles. Start with historically "American" tubes" like the 6V6 and 6L6 power tubes, 7025, (premium 12AX7), and 12AT7 preamp tubes and 5AR4 / GZ34 rectifier tube. If the "Built in the U.S.A." business catches on then, as other tube manufacturers around the globe looking for growth rather than a steady stream either cut back or stop production, our new Tube Manufacturer could add El34s and EL84s, etc.
Musicians love their equipment and the vast majority of Rock Star guitarists prefer tube amplification. In the world of audiophiles it's much the same way. Vinyl records were considered obsolete. Now they're back and bringing in the cash. When you look at the collections of guitars and amplifiers so many famous players have amassed requiring high dollar amounts to acquire what they now own it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't fork up some bread to guarantee the required components to keep their collections up to snuff.
There seems to be a current push to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.A. Why invest in building toasters, lawn equipment, window fans, etc. when you know up front there's a solid group of folks who would love Vacuum tubes to regain their place in American manufacturing.
I'm wondering. Would a brand name like AreSeeA U.S.A. be problematic?
If I were to win the big ticket I would call the company arlumtones U.S.A.
Yeah I always prefer glass.
SnidelyWhiplash
Poster Extraordinaire
I love my amps and I love my tube pedals too.
But they’re never coming back to this part of the world. Never.
We still have dingalings proclaiming one brand is best or one year is best.
IF it was at all technically possible to make vacuum tubes precisely and with adequate quality control THEN there would be no such thing as matched sets.
Also, the total available OEM and resale market combined is about 1/16th as much as most of you think it is.
Most of us love that technology and our gear but digital is getting close enough that it’s only going to continue to shrink the market.
But they’re never coming back to this part of the world. Never.
We still have dingalings proclaiming one brand is best or one year is best.
IF it was at all technically possible to make vacuum tubes precisely and with adequate quality control THEN there would be no such thing as matched sets.
Also, the total available OEM and resale market combined is about 1/16th as much as most of you think it is.
Most of us love that technology and our gear but digital is getting close enough that it’s only going to continue to shrink the market.
Sea Devil
Friend of Leo's
I think it's pretty well-understood at this point that tube manufacturing is not an environmentally friendly process. It pretty much needs to happen in countries with less stringent environmental regulations as well as lower costs.
Blrfl
Friend of Leo's
They are also antiquated tech.
Transistors aren't antiquated. They're lithographed onto silicon in large numbers and packaged up as integrated circuits.
Here is a snippet of what Phil Taylor has to say about tubes-
"Although solid-state technology overwhelmingly dominates today’s world of electronics, vacuum tubes are holding out in two small but vibrant areas. They do so for entirely different reasons. Microwave technology relies on tubes for their power-handling capability at high frequencies [“Tubes: still vital after all these years,” Robert S. Symons, IEEE Spectrum, April, 1998]. The other area—the creation and reproduction of music—is a more complicated and controversial story.
The complications and controversy stem from the fact that music is played to be heard by human beings, whose nonlinear ear-brain hearing systems are far from fully understood. Since no one knows exactly how to model the human auditory system, no one knows exactly what engineering measurements are appropriate to evaluating the performance of audio equipment. A smidgen of some kinds of distortion may sound worse to the ear than larger amounts of other kinds. So ultimately, the only way to judge audio equipment is by listening to it. Hence the controversy: subjective human perception—especially when flanked by questions of artistic merit—is made to order for arguments and disputation."
More if you are interested-
https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/the-cool-sound-of-tubes/
ed: oops, the article was posted by Phil, but written by Eric Barbour an applications engineer with Svetlana Electron Devices Inc
"Although solid-state technology overwhelmingly dominates today’s world of electronics, vacuum tubes are holding out in two small but vibrant areas. They do so for entirely different reasons. Microwave technology relies on tubes for their power-handling capability at high frequencies [“Tubes: still vital after all these years,” Robert S. Symons, IEEE Spectrum, April, 1998]. The other area—the creation and reproduction of music—is a more complicated and controversial story.
The complications and controversy stem from the fact that music is played to be heard by human beings, whose nonlinear ear-brain hearing systems are far from fully understood. Since no one knows exactly how to model the human auditory system, no one knows exactly what engineering measurements are appropriate to evaluating the performance of audio equipment. A smidgen of some kinds of distortion may sound worse to the ear than larger amounts of other kinds. So ultimately, the only way to judge audio equipment is by listening to it. Hence the controversy: subjective human perception—especially when flanked by questions of artistic merit—is made to order for arguments and disputation."
More if you are interested-
https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/the-cool-sound-of-tubes/
ed: oops, the article was posted by Phil, but written by Eric Barbour an applications engineer with Svetlana Electron Devices Inc
Last edited:
Folks, it's dying tech. Except it.
No matter how much we want to hold onto it...it's going to die over the coming decades.
What's keeping the market alive? Guitar players and the majority of that market is probably 40+ years old. Most of those guys are probably like me and have a stash to vintage tubes that they'll either never use or never wear out.
Younger players, in my observation, are more interested in digital.
What other applications on the mass market does a vacuum tube matter? Audiophiles aren't a big enough market and they're worse cork sniffers than we are when it comes to tubes. Plus you're competing with the used market. By the time your quality meets, along with its perception among consumers, to that of the gold standard era...so does the price.
Stock up, the end is near....
Hopefully it'll last long for me to sell the 1996 6L6's that came in my long departed HRD as 50 year old vintage Fender tubes in 2046. NOS of course.
No matter how much we want to hold onto it...it's going to die over the coming decades.
What's keeping the market alive? Guitar players and the majority of that market is probably 40+ years old. Most of those guys are probably like me and have a stash to vintage tubes that they'll either never use or never wear out.
Younger players, in my observation, are more interested in digital.
What other applications on the mass market does a vacuum tube matter? Audiophiles aren't a big enough market and they're worse cork sniffers than we are when it comes to tubes. Plus you're competing with the used market. By the time your quality meets, along with its perception among consumers, to that of the gold standard era...so does the price.
Stock up, the end is near....
Hopefully it'll last long for me to sell the 1996 6L6's that came in my long departed HRD as 50 year old vintage Fender tubes in 2046. NOS of course.
