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Mr Bill
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 1:44 pm

Still, nothing beats a tube for switching huge currents at extremely short time scales.

My brother is a guitar/bass player. He swears by having a tube preamp to get that sound.
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 1:52 pm

just brew it! wrote:
morphine wrote:
Ah, I see the confusion. The "nanotube" inside the Bluguitar Amp1 can push 100W. The Korg Nutube is designed for preamps, though. I figure that we're going to see TinyTubes across the entire power spectrum, assuming that the degree of audiophilia nervosa isn't too high.
Ahh, OK. Thanks for clearing that up.

From a review of the original AMP1

PremierGuitar.com wrote:
Amp 1 combines a tube-powered preamp with a solid-state Class D power amp. Class D designs, which can generate massive power using relatively small, light components, have become common in compact bass amps, though their ultra-clean tones make them rarer in guitar amplification. Meanwhile, the preamp employs a subminiature Russian vacuum tube. (According to Blug, it performs like a 12AX7/ECC83, but has a far longer lifespan.)

Here's another:

Sound On Sound wrote:
How Thomas managed to get everything into such a compact case is best explained by looking at the individual circuit elements. The solid-state analogue front end runs into a power stage, the front of which is designed around a miniature military-style, Russian dual-triode valve and dummy load, to create the ’tube’ character. This very long-life valve ‘Nanotube’ is soldered to the circuit board, so there are no sockets to cause problems. After this comes a Class-D output stage that does the heavy lifting. The circuit design is a little bit special — it’s designed to replicate the current feedback and power-supply-sag characteristics of a traditional valve output stage, so that it reacts correctly to the loudspeaker load and power level.
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 1:57 pm

Mr Bill wrote:
Still, nothing beats a tube for switching huge currents at extremely short time scales.

MOSFETs are better at it these days. The VRMs on the motherboard of a desktop PC are switching 100+ amps at frequencies above the range of human hearing.

(Tubes are better at handing high voltages though.)

Mr Bill wrote:
My brother is a guitar/bass player. He swears by having a tube preamp to get that sound.

They undeniably have a characteristic "sound". But that's not because of being able to "switch huge currents at extremely short time scales". It's because the non-linearities and distortions they produce when over-driven sound more "natural" and pleasing to the human ear than the hard clipping you get from a lot of solid-state designs.
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Krogoth
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:14 pm

morphine wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Maybe we'll see the return of motherboards with tube-based audio! :lol:

Egads, just kill me already.


The force of the hipster fad is too strong! :lol:
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:15 pm

just brew it! wrote:
Mr Bill wrote:
Still, nothing beats a tube for switching huge currents at extremely short time scales.

MOSFETs are better at it these days. The VRMs on the motherboard of a desktop PC are switching 100+ amps at frequencies above the range of human hearing.

(Tubes are better at handing high voltages though.)

Mr Bill wrote:
My brother is a guitar/bass player. He swears by having a tube preamp to get that sound.

They undeniably have a characteristic "sound". But that's not because of being able to "switch huge currents at extremely short time scales". It's because the non-linearities and distortions they produce when over-driven sound more "natural" and pleasing to the human ear than the hard clipping you get from a lot of solid-state designs.
The two sentences were not intended to be related. High power switching which has nothing to do with my brothers appreciation of the pleasing distortion of tube preamps for musical instruments. But you did amplify :D on my meaning for tube preamps.
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Captain Ned
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:16 pm

Betcha this is the "russian nanotube":

https://tubes-store.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=835
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:17 pm

Mr Bill wrote:
The two sentences were not intended to be related. High power switching which has nothing to do with my brothers appreciation of the pleasing distortion of tube preamps for musical instruments. But you did amplify :D on my meaning for tube preamps.

Ahh, OK. I guess your original intent got distorted :D slightly on the way from your keyboard to my brain!
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Captain Ned
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:19 pm

Krogoth wrote:
The force of the hipster fad is too strong! :lol:

All the way from 2002!!??
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Krogoth
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:38 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
Krogoth wrote:
The force of the hipster fad is too strong! :lol:

All the way from 2002!!??


I doubt that original AOpen board was inspired by hipsters, but I wouldn't be too shocked if motherboard vendors latched onto the "micro-tubes" as the next fad catered towards hipsters.
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bthylafh
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:45 pm

Krogoth wrote:
I wouldn't be too shocked if motherboard vendors latched onto the "micro-tubes" as the next fad catered towards hipsters.


A case that incorporates that plus an LP player, maybe in (avert your eyes)

slot loader format.
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:57 pm

No real hipster would be caught dead using a desktop PC made in the past 2+ decades. PCs are uncool unless they're retro (like an Apple II or Commodore 64).
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bthylafh
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 3:10 pm

I always did like the original-style PC power supplies that had the big red toggle switch.
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 3:12 pm

bthylafh wrote:
I always did like the original-style PC power supplies that had the big red toggle switch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwjP8HCpE4E
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Wirko
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 4:08 pm

This Korg's thing is probably just a nu variant of this ol' tube ...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Bit-Vacuum-Fluorescent-Display-VFD-Display-LCD-Nixie-Tube-Display-Module/191913458064?hash=item2caeeef990:g:ELwAAOSwbYZXeduo:rk:4:pf:0

(10 x 5.5 mA anode current at 26 volts? I've always wondered how they achieve that in VFDs, and the cathode is just 2 or 3 thin wires heated to barely glow)
 
Captain Ned
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 6:19 pm

The term "nixie" in that description is 100% incorrect. This is a Nixie:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_tube
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 8:09 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
The term "nixie" in that description is 100% incorrect. This is a Nixie:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_tube

Yup.

Similar underlying glow discharge tech, but a Nixie has fully formed electrodes in the shape of each character, not segments.
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Captain Ned
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 9:22 pm

just brew it! wrote:
Similar underlying glow discharge tech, but a Nixie has fully formed electrodes in the shape of each character, not segments.

VFD is thermionic, Nixie isn't.
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Re: A modern vacuum tube

Thu Dec 20, 2018 10:06 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Similar underlying glow discharge tech, but a Nixie has fully formed electrodes in the shape of each character, not segments.

VFD is thermionic, Nixie isn't.

Well whadya know... guess I learned something today.

I must have been thinking of segmented cold-cathode displays... I remember tinkering with those briefly when I was much younger. Similar to this, but using cold-cathode glow discharge for the segments instead of LEDs.

Edit: IIRC the one I messed with was similar to the Beckman SP-450 Panaplex, about halfway down this page.

Edit 2: Egads that's a fascinating site.
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