2. amps-preamps
  3. 1231197886

The future of Tubes

Why can't tubes be made today that are as good as the NOS?

I realize that back in the day tubes were in everything and my guess is, due to that demand, there was a higher priority put on making good tubes. Is that correct?

Is is naive to think that with our 'advanced' technology we should be able to make tubes at least as good as they were? Lastly, as expensive as many NOS tubes are getting can one assume we're close to the end of the NOS? (i.e. good 6922's) I'm sure this is the case with the 6H30's.

Apologies if this is common knowledge, I've tried the archives and google.. Thank you if you can share your thoughts or point me to some information.

Thanks,
Mark
classical1
tvad
9,467 posts
 
This question has been thoroughly addressed in several threads that exist in the archives.

It's too bad Audiogon does not have a better search engine.
rodman99999
3,557 posts
 
Low demand is a factor(so many now are willing to settle for the mediocre), but the desire/motivation to produce a quality product is another. Anything of quality is going to cost you through the nose nowdays, and few take the time or make the effort to turn out excellence. There are quality tubes manufactured that compare with the NOS "Grails", but they cost. ie: (http://thetubestore.com/eat.html) (http://www.elusivedisc.com/products.asp?dept=1469) (http://www.tubedepot.com/we-300b.html) Click on "tubes" on this site: (http://www.kraudio.com/)
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
1,368 posts
 
I think that the low demand for tubes today makes it economically unattractive for manufacturers to spend the money to develop tubes as good as the great NOS preamp tubes.

It still could happen though. I imagine there are folks in Russia and China working on it and they could come up with the magic formula.

Current production Gold Lion KT 88 output tubes are considered to sound better than many NOS tubes. Also there are people who prefer current production preamp tubes to NOS.
More to discover