>RE tubes.
>
>A friend who is into serious recording equipment uses brand-new digital
>pre-amps built with vacuum tubes, and his microphones, also high-end and
>brand new, contain vacuum tubes. So there's got to be more to it than just
>finding old ones in the basement or buying them from hi-fi shops in
>Kazakstan.
Nothing odd here. My ham radio amplifier has an 8877 (aka 3CX1500) in the
final. This ceramic behemoth turns 65w watts in into 1500 out, continuous
(if it were legal, it could put out 2500w). Some high-end tubes, like my
8877 are still made in the US. The availability vacuum (I could't help
myself) is being filled by several Russian manufacturers - Svetlana for one
- quite nicely.
Big amps require big tubes!
Harris Ruben (N2ERN)