Great eBook from Sonic Frontiers that covers tubes from end to end in a very entertaining way.

A Taste of Tubes http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oG7_QSyJhMyF...1/pdf/taste.pdf

I like the look of tubes along with the taste. Listening to music in complete darkness with the glow emanating from a series of vacuum tubes is a very enjoyable and relaxing experience.

Time to bring the marshmallows and hot dogs.

Especially when you’re . . . .

Already relaxed?

Especially in the Wintertime. The tubes help warm the room up.

... playing Wii in your underwear ?

It's the heat from the tubes....

It's gettin' hot in here (so hot)
So take off all your clothes.........

This is tasty!

I thought that's what women/spouses/SOs were for?

With an avatar like that, this has to be the best strait man line I've seen in a while.

Hey - 5000 !!

Thanks for sharing!

I knew there was a good reason for this thread.

i've got to pay attention more when reading the titles of these threads, I thought this said "a test tube" thinking what the hell is axiom into now, so i clicked on it then realized i read it wrong!

getting old!

Dr. House,

what exactly is that a picture of? Even if it wasn't functional, i want it.

OH MY!

It is a PrimaLuna tube amplifier.

Not cheap.

http://www.upscaleaudio.com/ProLogue-Two-Integrated-Amplifier_p_592.html

Man, I sure wish my solid state receiver had more warmth and humanity.

I wish more people had more humanity

I just hook humans up between my speakers and my amp. Works well, other than the screaming.

Another beautiful shot of some vacuum tubes.

Ok, these pics are making me want a tube amp for the bedroom system.

You are starting to get a taste for tubes! I must admit, I want to get a turntable.

I'm not sure I would step back to that much time required to maintain the records.

Vacuum tubes require some tender loving care as well.

My Audiobytes are my bedroom system. The amp produces a blue glow. Yeah, it's not as sexy as a tube glow, and I admit that I usually cover up the blue light with the a pair of boxers. I connect my iPhone to it and use an alarm clock app to wake up to music every morning. The light annoys me when I'm trying to sleep.

How did my boss get on this forum?

This would look beautiful next to the PrimaLuna.

Not cheap but very reasonable for a hand wired tube amp that doesn't need biasing and according to the reviews sounds amazing. If you wanted to get into tubes you could spend a lot more money and not get much more in sound quality. I think it might be priced at the point where diminishing returns begin to kick-in.

The "guts" and build quality are impressive. There definitely is some quality craftsmanship going on into that product.

There are a few tube amps to get going with if you only want to spend a little. Glow Amps is one. They are lots of fun. I have two amps. A Decware Zen Select and a Manley Stingray.

Hi Wuchak. Kevin Scales at Upscale Audio is a good guy. I've heard nothing but good things about the Prima Lunas. I have an Antique Sound Labs MG S1 15DT 5 wpc KT-88, 12ax7 tube amp, which sounds great, but their customer service gets an "F" so I can't recommend their gear. Shame. The Stingray is a great sounding amp. Haven't heard the Decware.

Dr. House, that Yamaha is a thing of beauty. I'm going to keep an eye out for one of those. Thanks.

Lampshade, nice to post with you!

The model is part of the Yamaha GT-2000 series - Gigantic and Tremendous. The one pictured might be the rarest of the series? They were only sold in Japan from what I understand. You might find them on places like ebay.

I'm with you there. My brother-in-law wanted to give me his old Music Hall MM7 turntable (he bought a VPI Scout) but I declined because I did not want to go down the expensive path of replacing my 700 CDs with vinyl. Keeping the albums clean and scratch-free is a hassle, too.

On a tangent, but in the guitar world tube amps are so much more coveted than solid state counterparts. Its funny, because we pay top bucks for the best "distortion". In home audio, we pay huge bucks for the least distortion. I always thought that was so ironic.

Not really. The guitar amp is used in generating the music, which means that what reproduces the sound of the guitar in that sense is part of the instrument. If you want to hear what the artist intended, you should have the least distortion on your playback equipment.