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Does anybody else find it kind of silly and absurd that we're still using tube amplifiers even though solid state transistors have become massively more convenient for nearly every other type of electrical technology?

Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying I don't understand why people use them. I own two tube amps of my own and can probably better describe the warmth of tube sound better than the warmth of a vagina.

Why hasn't there been technology that has been able to successfully replicate the low-end and the gradations in the clipping that makes everybody bonkers for tubes? At my university, there were some students in electrical engineering that had designed a solid state amp that was designed to replicate tube sounds, and they had it do so by having something dictate when the amp should clip as the volume increased in order to compensate for the harsh, dichotomous clipping of a solid state amplifier. They claimed that the drive was pretty close to a tube amp, but they weren't able to get the "warmth", which they said was characterized by a boosted second harmonic.

It really seems like with enough time, somebody should be able to figure this out. Personally, it seems ridiculous to me that so many of us are lugging around these extremely expensive, volatile, and difficult pieces of equipment.

Hmm... volatile, expensive, and difficult... What does that remind you of?

By the way, I really like the word "bonkers" and am trying to use it as much as possible.

Actually, my statement that all other technologies have since jumped on the solid state bandwagons was a complete and total assumption. If anybody can illustrate other technologies in which there is still a large following of tube technology, that would be very informative.

I know tubes are still used for some military applications, comms stuff most likely, but I couldn't say exactly what. There's a pretty hardcore fan base for tube stuff in the world of Hi Fi as well as guitar amplification and pro audio uses. I remember reading an interview with a designer (possibly the guy from EAR?) in which he claimed that given the right circuit topology he could design tube circuits that would outperform transistors in terms of noise/linearity, but no one was interested in buying them. They wanted tubes

I think the reason they've not been completely displaced by solid state devices is a combination of the fact that the 'tube sound' is so widely percieved to be THE sound of electric guitar, and that that sound is a result of so many variables in physical tube design that modelling it either through transistor design or digital means is a pretty thankless task.

I still use mostly iron for cooking. I only have a few bits of chantall for applications that I can't perform on iron. Also, I still haven't found a decent pie iron and loaf iron, so I have two pieces of (shudder) teflon.

Same deal with my V4bs.

They look so much cooler inside and out. A properly constructed tube amplifier chassis just looks so hott, and then you get these glowing glass things that have pretty colours in them, and they smell good when they warm up.

And you have to wait a couple of minutes for it to wake up and work for you. It's just the coolest. That's why.

Even-order harmonics.

Like you've never got romantic by the glow of a B15n.

It reminds me of a joke.

MIT held a banana designing contest.

It came down to the two finalists. The first guy gets up.

"After nearly one million man hours of design, testing and research, my team has finally crafted the perfect synthetic banana! The polymer coating is actually bruise sensitive! You drop it and it will turn brown, just like a banana! We've FINALLY been able to design it so that it will pretty consistently peel in four to five different size strips! It even snaps a little when you first breach it, just like a banana! The soy-based interior fruit substitute is either pliable or mushy, depending on how hard you press it, just like a banana..!"

This goes on for five minutes. The judges look over at the second guy as he steps up to the podium to present.

He stands there for a second and then holds up his design. "I have a banana I bought at the store."

<JOKE OVER>

Actually, it didn't remind me of that. I just made that joke up.

= Justin

Now if somebody could invent a funny punchline...