Why are there no tube televisions anymore?


It’s funny when you come to think of it and compare video with audio. How come in the audio world discussions sometimes become intense, while there seem to be far less intense discussions in the TV & video realm?

With TV’s there’s no talk on tubes, transistors, analog, digital, vinyl, cables, power cords, heck we can even get ’audio’ fuses and -USB cables.

No one has a tube TV (while they really have a ’warmer’ image :) and very few people use a $400 power cord with their TV set. And while there are expensive HDMI cables on the market, the vast majority uses one below $50. And no one spends money on floor spacers to avoid cable vibrations.

Our eyes may even be far more sensitive than our ears ... yet discussions are far less intense. How come?


rudyb

Showing 1 response by mwinkc

I still have a clear memory of helping my Dad pull 15-20 tubes out of our b&w console TV once or twice a year, when it was acting up, and driving to the Bernstein-Applebee electronics store where we’d kill an hour or so testing each one a couple times. We’d get several that rated "good" a few that rated neither good or bad and 2-3 that tested as "bad". We’d buy new replacements for the "bad ones, put them all back in the TV, cross our fingers and turn it on. Sometimes it worked and sometimes We’d have to go back and buy replacements for the ones that tested inconclusive.
It was a pain in the rear and waste of time.
I don’t miss tubes in TV’s at all.
I also remember that TV repairmen did housecalls then and kept quite busy.
My father and I built a Heathkit mono tube-amp for our 45 player and a guitar amp that I used in a terrible garage band in the 60’s. The Heathkits were rock solid.