| Author: | tedmich (registered user: 668 posts ) |
| Date: | Wed, Jun 13th, 2012 @ 11:16 ( . ) |
Looks like a completely self contained FET based 12AX7 replacement, with various gain structures [link] [link] $33 each! |
| Author: | GuiteLectrique (registered user: 335 posts ) |
| Date: | Wed, Jun 13th, 2012 @ 13:27 ( . ) |
Pricey indeed, but they should last a lifetime. I wonder how they sound. |
| Author: | GuiteLectrique (registered user: 335 posts ) |
| Date: | Wed, Jun 13th, 2012 @ 13:35 ( . ) |
More info here [link] I see a lot of cool advantages. |
| Author: | tedmich (registered user: 668 posts ) |
| Date: | Wed, Jun 13th, 2012 @ 13:42 ( . ) |
On 06/13/2012 @ 13:35, GuiteLectrique wrote :
More info here [link] : : I see a lot of cool advantages. -- well there's no crystalline matrix... [link] |
| Author: | Stephen Keller (registered user: 5254 posts ) |
| Date: | Wed, Jun 13th, 2012 @ 17:08 ( . ) |
On 06/13/2012 @ 11:16, tedmich wrote :
Looks like a completely self contained FET based 12AX7 replacement, with various gain structures : : [link] : [link] : : $33 each! : : They only sell them in packs of 3, so that $33 really means you'll be out $99US. That's a pretty steep barrier to entry. Furthermore, there's a ton of complexity in that device. See US Patent 7,408,401 for details. It might be kind of interesting to tinker around with an envelope-controlled sag circuit to tailor the transconductance of an LND150 to be more like an 12AX7. I don't think that would violate the Roberts Audio Technology patents, and it'd be a heck of a lot simpler approach. Let's see a couple of LND150s, some rectifier diodes to capture the signal dynamic and a few resistors... Stph |
| Author: | klingo (registered user: 273 posts ) |
| Date: | Thu, Jun 14th, 2012 @ 04:35 ( . ) |
There's a life time garanty on them. however in the 70's preamp valves seem to last longer than guitarists... |
| Author: | Stephen Keller (registered user: 5254 posts ) |
| Date: | Thu, Jun 14th, 2012 @ 08:12 ( . ) |
On 06/14/2012 @ 04:35, klingo wrote :
There's a life time garanty on them. Hm... that's not exactly what they say on their product [link] page: JCA warrants RetroValves to be free from defects in material and workmanship affecting form, fit, and function for the lifetime of the product.
A warranty against "defects and materials" for the "lifetime of the product" is something altogether different from "a lifetime guarantee." The first question I'd want to know is how long do they think these things are going to last. : however in the 70's preamp valves seem to last longer than guitarists...
Amen to that! 12AX7s are pretty robust. I've got a couple of 12AX7s made in the 50s that are still functioning quite well. One of them (a Voice of the Theater unit) I bought used at a vintage car swap meet for a quarter. It happily lives and works just fine in my P1-eX. One can go through an awful lot of guitar picks for a $98.75 savings. Stph |
| Author: | Kursad K (registered user: 1308 posts ) |
| Date: | Fri, Jun 15th, 2012 @ 07:09 ( . ) |
Some people have too much time Kursad |
| Author: | brawler (registered user: 290 posts ) |
| Date: | Fri, Jun 15th, 2012 @ 08:45 ( . ) |
"It's still a tube amp, it's just that the tubes have been replaced by a solid state device." HUH? The statement is pure manure. It's either a tube or it's not. The amp sounds good in that clip. I'd love to give one a spin. It's hard to tell too much from a internet video clip that was set up and controlled by the manufacturer. I hate to say this but this is the future of amp technology. Or at least something like this. The manufacturing of tubes is expensive and environmentally dirty. In the long run (many years) tubes will go away unless those two facts change. |
| Author: | Stephen Keller (registered user: 5254 posts ) |
| Date: | Fri, Jun 15th, 2012 @ 13:12 ( . ) |
On 06/15/2012 @ 08:45, brawler wrote : The manufacturing of tubes is expensive and environmentally dirty.
Yep, kind of like the manufacturing of semiconductors. In fact, tubes are far less complex (and less expensive) to manufacture than your typical solid state devices. For the price of a small car, I think I could set up a small lab suitable for short run manual production of directly heated vacuum tubes. It's probably 100x to gear up a lab to make an integrated circuit. Don't even think about mass production without seriously deep pockets. Construction of Intel's new fab in Hillsboro, OR [link] is expected to cost around $5 billion to construct. As for environmentally friendliness, neither tubes nor solid state are. Consider this list of chemicals used in the production of silicon semiconductors: [link] Mishandle any of these or let them escape into the surrounding environment and there'll be damage to nearby animal and human populations. Just because it's called a "clean room" doesn't mean the process is clean from an environmental perspective. Stph |
| Author: | Kursad K (registered user: 1308 posts ) |
| Date: | Fri, Jun 15th, 2012 @ 15:16 ( . ) |
On 06/15/2012 @ 08:45, brawler wrote :
The manufacturing of tubes is expensive and environmentally dirty. In the long run (many years) tubes will go away unless those two facts change. Some people have been saying that for at least 50 years. the fact is that they are not only still being produced, but also on-chip versions have started to appear. Kursad |
| Author: | Chris Hurley (moderator: 7776 posts ) |
| Date: | Wed, Jun 20th, 2012 @ 14:02 ( . ) |
I think that is pretty interesting. If it ever caught on, you'd have a micro-USB port on the "valve" so you could hook it up to your computer and adjust its behavior with a software program. |
| Author: | Ken Graves (registered user: 896 posts ) |
| Date: | Thu, Jun 21st, 2012 @ 00:10 ( . ) |
I'll glass with a vacuum, thank you. I'm sure I'll go away before they do. |