Future of Tubes is TODAY

[Gregg]

Transistors schmansistors - soon it will be all software-based with very accurate (and continually improving) modelling going through FRFR amps and speakers.

I guess it's already here:

Orange Guitar Amp PC Might Be The Best Looking Desktop Ever | HotHardware

[oc disorder]

The Future of Tubesound (ŠOC)is HERE !

Remember the 100 watt Marshall?


https://marshallamps.com/products/am...ode/code-100h/

and

Marshall tones digitally replicated for Code series amps

and here

Softube - Marshall CODE Announced


If you just want the sound....

Softube - Out Now: Marshall JMP 2203 Plug-In

For sale... http://www.peachguitars.com/guitar-a...ifier-head.htm

or 50w http://www.peachguitars.com/guitar-a...-amplifier.htm

[Chuck H]

The Future of Tubesound (ŠOC)is HERE !

Remember the 100 watt Marshall?


https://marshallamps.com/products/am...ode/code-100h/

and

Marshall tones digitally replicated for Code series amps

and here

Softube - Marshall CODE Announced


If you just want the sound....

Softube - Out Now: Marshall JMP 2203 Plug-In

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

[Justin Thomas]

Just because you put a bunch of traditional knobs onto a computer screen does not make it an amplifier...

Bluh.

Justin

[Chuck H]

Bluh

That's the technical term for it.

[Justin Thomas]

I've got it programmed into my gadget's dictionary... it came from a friend's habit of answering the phone by saying his business name so fast, it came out as "bluh-shuh-mykul," said in under half a second. I kept the first word cuz it sounded funny, and now it describes anything from being sick (how are you? Bluh...) to the tone of an amp (man, all bass & no highs makes your amp sound bluh!), or anything that's just so hopelessly stupid or boring & uninspiring. Often it's followed by an exclamation point (I just stepped in dog crap... Bluh!) It's a notch or three more emotional than "meh..."

Justin

[nickb]

There are certain unwritten rules that most solid state designs follow. (Group Think) My design breaks most of them. If the design was sold to an amp company, they would try to "improve" it and totally kill the magic. One of the rules that Juan likes to tout is that you should never drive the power amp to clipping. My design slams the rails and makes the power supply sag. That's part of the magic. That's where the FEEL of a tube amp comes from. As good as Juan's amp sounds in the video he recently posted, I'm not hearing the tube amp feel in the clip. It could be that I need to be in the same room with the amp or actually play it to see how it feels. You can't really tell much from videos posted on the internet. Would you buy a car on the internet?

Link to Fahey amp video, post 19: http://music-electronics-forum.com/t41444/

But my design suffers from many of the limitations of a tube amp. Crank the Master Volume down to bedroom levels and it doesn't sound as good, it looses the feel, just like a tube amp. Because you can overdrive the power amp input, there is not as much gain available as you turn the Master Volume down. You can crank the line voltage down to about half (1/4 power) and it sounds ok.

I looked at every JFET I could get my hands on. The ones that behave the most like triodes are switching JFETs operated well below Idss. These JFETs are fairly low noise. I did lots of experiments to find ways to bias them. Some biasing methods are discussed in this thread: http://music-electronics-forum.com/t39927/ Some of the things I tried were rejected because they didn't track the power supply, required a trimmer pot, or just plain sounded bad. Some of this was discussed on SSGuitar forum. Link: Look Ma, NO POTS! I eventually settled on two designs, one for the first stage that has the same headroom of a 12AX7 and a second stage that has more gain. Grid current simulation is accomplished with diodes. With these building blocks I made a Blackface Fender preamp and a 5F6A dual channel preamp.

The power amp is a whole nother can of worms. Over the years I built quite a few. The design I'm using is deceptively simple. It uses only 5 transistors, it has a gain of 100, no AC feedback, the input impedance is 220K, output impedance (not load impedance) is about 45 Ohms and it produces a non-symmetrical square wave when over-driven. Lots of even order distortion. It produces 50W at 4 Ohms and is loud as hell when it's slamin the rails. What got me started on this design was a thread on DiyAudio about building a power amp into an Altoids tin. This thread also provided inspiration: Tube sound from a transistor amp, it's possible - diyAudio but in the end, Nelson Pass played the biggest role. I have 97 posts in this thread: Amp Camp Amp - ACA - diyAudio but I used a class AB output stage.

Some people that played the 5F6A amp wanted more gain so I installed a switch that lets you place the two input channels in series. In that mode the overall gain with all the pots maxed is about 100dB. Overall 12 transistors and 3 opamps. The opamps and 3 of the transistors are not in the signal path.

Well, I read those - thx.

Well, not all 2500+ posts in the diyaudio Amp Camp thread! Actually, it's those sort of crazy length of threads over there is why I hardly ever bother with it.

[robrob]

Probably you can nail the taste but you still know it's margarine.

Exactly.

Amps with Nutubes will mostly compete with solid state amps in sales.

[J M Fahey]

Well, one such amp will be as hybrid as any other brand offering.
An SS amp with a 12AX7, think Valvestate and tons others, is as hybrid as anything using Nutubes, because I can't imagine they can make *power* Nutubes anyway, muscle will always be Silicon based..

[Old Tele man]

Sorry, but I am used to unplugging my tubes from sockets, not unsoldering them from circuit boards (wink,wink)!

[Justin Thomas]

Juan,

I don't think Music Man & Valvestate are "one as hybrid as the other..." Come to think of it, MM is what pops in <MY> head when one says "hybrid..."
I know which I'd rather play...

That said, they WERE designed with completely different goals in mind...

Justin

[J M Fahey]

Juan,

I don't think Music Man & Valvestate are "one as hybrid as the other..." Come to think of it, MM is what pops in <MY> head when one says "hybrid..."
I know which I'd rather play...

That said, they WERE designed with completely different goals in mind...

Justin

WHO mentioned Music Man??????????????????

[Justin Thomas]

I did! :P
Just a friendly reminder to everyone out there, sticking a token 12AX7 in an amp that may or may not be doing anything isn't the <ONLY> way to make a hybrid amp!

And you should know better than to lump all hybrids into the same category, you stereotyper!
("Well, one such amp will be as hybrid as any other brand offering.") All hybrids are equal, but some hybrids are more equal than others...

So, if it has a NuTube preamp & a Music Man power amp, does it still count as all-tube, or is it a hybrid?

Justin

[SoulFetish]

Transistors schmansistors - soon it will be all software-based with very accurate (and continually improving) modelling going through FRFR amps and speakers. Look at the Kemper (aka "the devil's toaster" ) or the new BiasFX box. Maybe they're not quite 'there' yet...maybe. But every year they get an order of magnitude better. How soon before it's impossible to tell the difference in a double-blind test?

I build tube amps and am part owner of a company that sells tube amps, but as an ex-programmer, I'm seeing (hearing?) the writing on the wall.

Unfortunately, I think your probably right to a large degree(although, I do agree with bea that I don't think they will ever completely go away). I say "unfortunately", not because I have anything against digital or transistor guitar amps(....well maybe I'm a little bit of a tube snob, but I'm trying to be better about it). The point is, after it goes digital, it will probably all be cloud based software. Then it will only be available as a subscription service, and I'll probably be broke and let my subscription lapse. We'll never own an amp again. But for those who still love to tube roll! - try their new perfectly modeled Blackburn Mullard **** plates vs Amperex Bugleboys in V1 - available as "in app purchases for $129.95 a piece. We'll have to take our amps to the IT guys for servicing because it has a virus.

[Chuck H]

Unfortunately, I think your probably right to a large degree(although, I do agree with bea that I don't think they will ever completely go away). I say "unfortunately", not because I have anything against digital or transistor guitar amps(....well maybe I'm a little bit of a tube snob, but I'm trying to be better about it). The point is, after it goes digital, it will probably all be cloud based software. Then it will only be available as a subscription service, and I'll probably be broke and let my subscription lapse. We'll never own an amp again. But for those who still love to tube roll! - try their new perfectly modeled Blackburn Mullard **** plates vs Amperex Bugleboys in V1 - available as "in app purchases for $129.95 a piece. We'll have to take our amps to the IT guys for servicing because it has a virus.

Fun! And I agree. But it'll come in the guise of "what is now". People use to such programs (read, a lot younger than us) would be sorely disappointed in the rigors of managing an amp at volume and all the damn noise those things make Life will go on and clever kids will keep making music with guitars. The idea that tube amp sounds will be valuable enough to be digitized is going to have to be enough condolence I'm afraid.