"4K" - Why?!

[mikedt]

Some people think that tube amps have a warmer, more natural sound. If they are luddites, they are luddites with money.

The Decware Audiophile Tube Amplifier / Model ZEN TORII MONO'S

Melody AN 300B Integrated Amplifier Reviewed

Just a couple quick examples, they can go even higher. Are they worth it? Couldn't tell you, I don't have that kind of cash to throw around lol.

Here's a famous brand of tube/valve amp, that many might recognise.

Used by "Luddite" musicians and bands the world over.

This is all serious stuff, and not just some novelty "toobed" PC mainboard or soundbar.

 

[EarlyMon]

Here's a famous brand of tube/valve amp, that many might recognise.

Used by "Luddite" musicians and bands the world over.

This is all serious stuff, and not just some novelty "toobed" PC mainboard or soundbar.

In a good design and built well, tubes (valves) offer some interesting advantages for audio applications.

In the specs game, tubes lose - harmonic distortion alone is measured in full percentage points, not hundredths or thousandths.

But they almost always produce that in even harmonics where the ear can't tell, and virtually nothing odd where the ear is highly sensitive.

Plus when overdriven to clipping (as happens most of the time for us, it doesn't need to be cranked), tubes will tend to attenuate and compress the signal but still match the waveform. Transistors tend to just stop producing the waveform and dump DC current until they recover.

Those electrical characteristics are the cause of what listeners call "that warm tube sound" - because music punctuated by DC sounds harsh.

You can build transistor amps that are their equal but both are very expensive.

And the big problem is that with the transistors being a better whole-market solution, good tubes can be hard to find.

Given that tubes have also been used for microwave relays, and that's an ultra high speed thing, there's no reason that you couldn't build a 4k tube TV.

But it would be hotter than the stove and cost more than I want to imagine.

(See what I did there? )

 

[nickdalzell]

I probably use the antenna input more than any app, game console or Chromecast. There's a very nice classic TV channel called 'MeTV' that avoids the need to buffer and rebuffer Netflix and eat up more of my data plan. I even have my Xbox tied into the TiVo so I can mute commercials by voice. Still don't need an Internet connection for that.

 

[dibblebill]

I probably use the antenna input more than any app, game console or Chromecast. There's a very nice classic TV channel called 'MeTV' that avoids the need to buffer and rebuffer Netflix and eat up more of my data plan. I even have my Xbox tied into the TiVo so I can mute commercials by voice. Still don't need an Internet connection for that.

We get MeTV here, too. I just don't watch it :S It does get nice programming, though.

 

[nickdalzell]

The programming on MeTV is pretty much 80% of what I have in my instant queue on Netflix. Not on demand but still more stable. Having a show like Adam-12 cut out to rebuffer and then crash with 'cannot play this title right now' right at the climax is simply unacceptable. Also never saw the actual suspect responsible for a murder on Dragnet and that did it for me. It just had to cut out as they revealed his name!