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Korg Nutube: Solid State Vacuum Tube

watchnerd

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How long until this shows up in consumer audio components?

VFD-based triode in op amp sized package.

http://korgnutube.com/en/

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RayDunzl

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DonH56

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watchnerd

watchnerd

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Really is a shame this retro tube revival didn't focus on nuvistor tubes. Long lasting, good performing and small. Had a nuvistor based pre-amp at one time. Instead we get DHT_SET super retro devices.

isn't super retro the target market?
 

Fitzcaraldo215

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To my mind, “warm” is a description for a coloration, making warm and linear incompatible.
I would not go quite that far, although warm does frequently describe colorations on playback. But, some musical sound heard live can also be described as warmer than something else, such as the difference between concert halls. I have heard music critics use it that way. Going back to Holt's definitions, warmer sound is usually about more mid-bass energy, but it is still subjective and loosey goosey.
 
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watchnerd

watchnerd

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I would not go quite that far, although warm does frequently describe colorations on playback. But, some musical sound heard live can also be described as warmer than something else, such as the difference between concert halls. I have heard music critics use it that way. Going back to Holt's definitions, warmer sound is usually about more mid-bass energy, but it is still subjective and loosey goosey.

Okay, this is a vocab problem -- warm is used two different ways.

One is what you describe, mid-bass energy.

The other, when people say "analog warmth", they're referring to euphonic distortion, soft clipping, tape saturation, etc.
 

CuteStudio

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The sonic term 'warm' comes 2nd harmonics generated by a tube run without feedback, running a BJT without feedback is denoted by terms like 'harsh', 'unpleasant' and 'awful' :).
Tubes win however not just on an intrinsically musical distortion but also that often we use a smaller part of their transfer curve due to the high voltages the anodes sit at.

The other really neat things for DIY is that you don't have to buy heatsinks and they are difficult to kill, although the voltages can kill you and generally you'll need to find transformers for power amps - so it's swings and roundabouts I guess.

The biggest flaw of transistors in my view is their small size, tempting designers to scatter them liberally around the circuit which distracts from the essential purpose of the amp, the cost of a tube in terms of size and power means they tend to remain smaller in number! MOSFETs do make far better followers though, I'll give them that.
 

DonH56

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It is also a function of the circuit topology... A single-ended transistor circuit also exhibits high even-order harmonics, and a differential tube circuit mostly odd.

The intrinsic distortion expansion for a tube is factorial, and exponential for a BJT, so tubes can actually exhibit lower distortion...
 
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