Why Can't Modern Tube Manufacturers Make a Proper Tube?

Tube Technology like all technology is a dog that had its day, but more importantly from the Hey Day the Tech' was all about the people involved in the production.

It is safe to say the Tube was replaced by the much less power hungry Transistor and the Transistor by its function is quite Tube like when used in a audio circuit, as in its earliest guise it is a not too complex simi conductor, it has limited functions to which it is dedicated.

The Transistor was already mainstream in the 1950's, so the idea of Valve Production Plant's trying to compete was most likely a commercial suicide, the writing was on the Wall.  n 

Where the real changes are most likely to have occurred, is a result of War in Mainland Europe the Factories that had brought on the skill sets to be creative and innovative were losing their employees at a fast rate to the War Effort and as a story of tragedy, not many were to return, and plenty that did return, may not have been able to fall into life as it was once known.

Factories were pretty much set back and as they were trying to get back to their pre-war status, the Transistor was fast coming through as the more attractive option.

The Wars of the Twentieth Century, in conjunction with the follow up Arms Races are most likely why there is such a history over the past 40 Years of NOS, as most Tubes are from a substantial intinary of a Military Surplus released into the mainstream.

It would have been wonderful to have been blessed with the all seeing eye and have bought a Batch of Mullard ECC32's in the 90's, when they were a few £'ss each. 

The 32's are quite cheap in comparison to some other Brands, that not too many years past were very cheap finds.     

@ghdprentice My post was relating to the title of the thread and there is certainly only one place for the tube in relation to the Global Electronics Industry, the Thermionic Vacuum Tube is a Superseded Technology, as is the other Superseded Technology referred to, the Vinyl LP as a medium for embedding recorded data.

I use both Valves and Vinyl, I dropped the Transistor in Power Amplification more than 30 Years ago and have over the years adopted more Valve devices, Phono Pre - Pre-Amp and DAC. 

I have used Vinyl for approx' 40 Years and have only recently added a CD Source to my system.

I get the whole attraction to maintaining the use of Superseded Technology, my Stacked Speakers are a design conceived approx' 68-70 years passed and has been first marketed 65 years passed.

The World has changed, and more, much more is known about human activities, especially their pursuit of pleasure, entertainment and self indulgence and how the combined effect of the collective are very destructive to a fragile eco system. 

In a nutshell, I can easily drive a TT with a Battery. I can easily find a Battery that can be re-charged by Solar Technology.

The Tonearm and Cartridge are Passive, and only come with a manufacturing impact, The TA can be a keeper and only required as a one off purchase, or used TA's can be considered, if exchange arms are desired, again keeping the manufacture impact minimal. The Cart' is sacrificial, which will mean at some point it will need a replacement, for the past eight years, I have been buying in used Cart's and having them rebuilt, again a method to reduce the impact of manufacture.

The Vinyl LP's in use have Albums that are belonging to a collection that commenced over 40 year ago. My most recent purchase has been a New Album.  

The CD Source can be Powered by a very similar methodology that can be adopted for the Power Supply, 99% of my owned CD Collection are bought as used items, again a method that reduces the impact resulting from manufacture.

Friends have already adopted Battery Power for their Pre-Amp's and one has adopted Battery Power for their TT.

I will be pursuing Battery Power myself.

My Speakers which rely on a Power Supply are used in Conjunction with other Speaker Designs, one of which is a used purchase passive cabinet speaker, this speaker although not as good a performer as the ESL Speaker, is a attractive experience. The impression the cabinet speaker has made has spurred myself on to discover a Speaker to Supersede the use of the owned speakers at present.

A Speaker Design is being put together using a selection of owned high quality drivers, to be built using already owned salvaged materials to produce the structure.

Valves are Power Hungry and not really wanted in today's world, alternative methods are the better option in relation to Power consumption and the supporting infrastructure required to optimise the Valves performance, there is a lot of stuff required, a Power Amp's Copper used in a Tranx, can be substantial and if used for a different audio Power Amp design, might have enough Copper to produce 100+ Circuits.

The idea of supplying a Battery Power Supply becomes a investigation into what might be the required Solar Array > Battery Bank, or a device used to power a off grid RV or similar. Such a Power Supply type will require substantial monetary outlays.

Valves are a very difficult choice, if one is to do their bit to cut back on creating unnecessary emissions of harmful pollution. 

Manufacture releases all sorts of Toxicity into Water Ways and the Atmosphere.

Consumers using their purchased goods for entertainment purposes only, as a collective do quite a bit to impact on creating harmful gasses being released into the Atmosphere.

Consumers who are the type that are buying new regularly, exchanging earlier models for the latest models, are fuel for the Toxic Water and Atmosphere that the world is no experiencing.

Note: There are billions of life forms living with humans on this Planet that are deeply impacted on by Human Activity only.   

Have my own efforts been enough to justify my usage of Valves, who knows, I don't do the Math.

For those that do do the Math, I drive approx' 100 miles per week in a 1000cc Car, I use a Train for all other travel, I can't recall the time I last took a flight to travel, maybe eight - 10 years ago.

My TV was purchased in 2004 and is watched for approx' 10 hours per week by myself.

I am not a gamer and my last phone was purchased in 2018.

My music system has very few devices that are from a Typical Manufacture Background and those that are are used purchase items, but can be bespoke modified when put to use.

I listen to music on my own system on average for about 100 hours per year, but do share time with others and their systems, of which some are Valve Orientated with ESL Speakers. This could be construed as my being instrumental in encouraging the use of other Power Hungry Set Ups.

Am I doing enough to off set my usage of a Obsolete and Power Hungry Technology, let the math decide??

I like to think my doing something and intending to do more about putting a off set in place is plenty.    

             

Not too many years passed, I was in a conversation with a individual I met at a Forum get together where Valves are pretty much the thing and some very unfinished looking builds have Mercury Spill Kits on standby.

In a brief conversation, I was discussing Valves and the differences of impression tube rolling can create. The individual was a few streets in front of myself, they were making it known they were quite happy to detach the Manufacturers Base Pins and attach Pins of their own designs.

It was something being intimated that I should attempt to carry out.

As most of my interest in audio equipment over the past 5+years has been extending my investigations of all interfaces withing the signal path, the idea, of looking into discovering where a improvement can be found at the Valve/Valve Base Interface, should not be too far off limits.

My earliest investigations took me to a Valve Base used on my Phon', that locks onto the Valve Base Pins so tightly the removal of the Valve is quite a task, especially when assessed in comparison to a typical Valve Base Pin tightness as a connection.  

When I tube rolled this Phon' it was agreed the Valve Guards were removed for the exercise.

Using a Valve Base like the one mentioned, certainly begs the question about the quality of the solder connection of the Sleeve that covers the some of the Wire Valves  Base Pins on certain designs for a Valve.