A vacuum tube motherboard???

[Analog]

hmm, back to the future I guess!

link

 

[crabbyman]

Yeah..I think it looks weird...but tubes produce better sound..supposedly...but also cost a TON to replace. So whoever gets that mobo better hope they dont break it!

 

[Goi]

Its pretty absurd, and serves no function other than to confound. Tubes don't "produce better sound", they just sound better to some people. Many other people prefer solid state sound. They're different, but neither is "better" than the other.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: Goi
Its pretty absurd, and serves no function other than to confound. Tubes don't "produce better sound", they just sound better to some people. Many other people prefer solid state sound. They're different, but neither is "better" than the other.

True, its all in the clipping. Solid state amps clip more "severely", meaning more sharply if you look at the clipping on an o-scope. A tube amp dampens the clipping a bit, so it sounds less harsh, and there's less high freq. harmonic in it. That's why the guitar guys like tubes better. Of course, they're always overdriving their amps etc. Tubes tend to sound warmer to most folks. I wouldn't get it on the mobo though. Just put a tube amp on the outboard side if you really like it!

 

[Goi]

Well, a lot of people say its in the harmonic distortion...one produces even harmonics while the other produces odd harmonics, and somehow the brain prefers one to the other, and perceives it to be a "warmer" sound. I forget which is which though...I've never been into tubes, guess I'm not old enough
Its cheaper and easier to get decent sound on solid state though, and they measure better and produce more power too.

 

[KF]

Tubes do produce better sound than transistors when operated class A, because triodes are more linear. Transistor amplifiers require huge amounts of feedback to operate in a decently linear range, which introduces complexity, uneven frequency response, and amplifier instablility. In short, a simple triode amplifier will probably sound better than a simple transistor amplifier. But with a complex enough design the transistors drawbacks can be nullified. Tubes just don't have much of an area where the cost to performance ratio is very favorable.

For the lowest range, an IC package will beat the price of a tube, even though a tube may sound better. When the output range gets to be a few watts and high quality sound may be a consideration, the cheapest design is a class AB amplifier, which removes the better sounding class A from consideration, and most of the advantage of a triode. When the price gets to be very high, class A ampifiers still don't have near the power output that a class AB amplifier can easily attain.

 

[bozo1]

Search the archives - many threads/messages on this motherboard back in July.