Last typewriter factory in the world shuts its doors

[James Knott]

Mike wrote:
> It's funny: I just don't think of vinyl sound reproduction and tube
> amplification as  belong to yesteryear.

It's funny people still think that.  There are a couple of reasons why I 
say that.

1) Those vacuum tube heaters generate a *LOT* of thermal noise and tubes 
are also sensitive to microphonics etc.

2) The dynamic range of the best vinyl is over 20 dB poorer than CDs and 
also doesn't have the same frequency range.  It's also sensitive to 
various mechanical noise sources that don't affect CDs.

There are apparently a lot of people who like the characteristic 
distortions caused by tube gear, but not the more accurate reproduction 
of good solid state equipment.  Tubes tend to produce even order 
harmonics, which are less disturbing than the odd order harmonics that 
bipolar transistors generate.  On the other hand, field effect 
transistors have distortion characteristics similar to tubes.  What it 
all boils down to is the amp transfer function i.e. input vs output.  A 
perfect amp would have a completely linear (amplitude, frequency and 
phase) response but, of course, such a thing doesn't exist.  
Incidentally, several years ago, Bob Carver (of Carver amps fame) 
conducted a blind test, where he set up a transistor amp to have the 
same transfer function as a tube amp.  The people who preferred tube 
amps couldn't tell the difference between the tube and transistor amps.
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