Anybody still use vacuum tube amplifiers

swamp_thing

Some of us older folks will never warm up to solid state or printed circuits. There's just a sound that comes from tubes. Thus, I've built a couple for myself to enjoy. They will outlast me I'm thinking.

Anyone else using one?

William81

Some of the best music I ever listened to involved a vintage Macintosh Amp and Klipsch Heresy speakers.

I still have a Carver M500 and C1 Preamp from the early 80's. Not the same but still not much out there that can out perform them..

jimdeere

They taught us vacuum tube theory in Community College even though they were soon to be obsolete. My guitar playing friends loved the Fender Twin Reverb amp.

swamp_thing

I run klipsch R51M monitor speakers and also a set of JBL monitors, but the klipsch are better sounding. As for being obsolete there is not a lot of tube hifi amps around, but there are many tube guitar amps and several companies making tubes. They, like vinyl, are making somewhat of a comeback.

He Dog

Nope, I am a thoughly modern old fart. I even believe the world is round.

mrs102

No tube equipment anymore, but I own a tube tester I built from a kit about 55 years ago. Where does one find new vacuum tubes anymore?

swamp_thing

A search for "vacuum tubes for sale" will find multiple vendors for both new and nos tubes. They are plentiful and not badly priced, with a few exceptions. Many stereo shops carry some in stock as do music stores.

Bubba Jr.

I had a 1948 radio beside my bed when I was a kid that was full of tubes. I had one tube burn out on me once. I took it down to the local drugstore and found a mate to it, Plugged it in and everything was back to normal.

I used to be able to pull in stations from Chicago, New York City, St Louis, Cincinnati, and a few others.

I don't remember what happened to it.

Joe

Locust Fork

I sold a few guns to a winning bidder from Florida. He was very interesting to talk to....he was about to start a business that flew drones to do real estate type jobs, but his main gig was contracts that installed, maintained and stored lighting for businesses and high end christmas lights for homes. He was also in a band and knows some very recognizable people. One of the things he told me was how specific some guys are about their amps. There are a few guys out there who build them exactly as the artists require for "their" sound. Its pretty interesting to hear the lengths that are gone to for these things in some cases and how much that type thing costs the people who need them.

Merlinnv12

I have an antique Silvertone wire recorder/ record player/ radio that my great grandmother had. It has a handful of tubes and was still working a few years ago when I fired it up.

swamp_thing

There are still many old radios, record players and amps out there that are being used. One thing I want to mention is that all the tube stuff has electrolytic capacitors in their power supply. Over time these go bad. If your are using any of these radios, etcetera and they produce a loud hum when turned on then undoubtably these caps are bad. Continuing to run them will cause major circuit damage. Please seek out someone whom can replace these parts before further damage occurs. Otherwise it is best to no longer power them up.

These old jewels are 60 years or more old. Ofter wiring is crumbled as well. Be safe with them. You can find much info on this searching online. Enjoy🙂

Mr. Perfect

Lots of them for sale currently so I would suspect there are plenty of folks using them.