6L6 versions???

[Brian Carling]

On 30 Dec 97 at 10:34, Bill wrote:

> I love tube stuff too, but I'd have to disagree with some of your
> logic.  True, the 6L6 and it's variants are still selling whereas
> early transistors are not.  However the 6L6 is not an "early" tube
> type -- far from it.  A more fair comparison would be to ask if 01As
> and 45s are still being manufactured today.  Well, maybe they are
> somewhere, but they're aren't any for sale at Circuit City.

Read again, he said early BEAM POWER TETRODE or something like that!

I don't recall the 01A being a beam power tube!

Nor are they used in BA rigs or Fender Guitar Amps the last time I
checked!

> Also, consider the difficulty of changing a tube design.  A tube like
> a 6L6 is incredibly intricate.  Ever take one apart?

Yes. They are not that intricate. Just a tube for goodness sake!
What does that have to do with it anyway?

> It's a miracle
> that they can be manufactured at all.  By comparison, a transistor is
> simple.

It is all in the perception of the beholder though. What do you mean
by "simple?"

>That's why even MIL-SPEC transistors can be manufactured and
> sold for a nickel each.  Try that with a tube.

I have bought tubes for a nickel. I have been given them free.

> The point is that once
> a tube is designed, it is a major undertaking to do a redesign.

And the same with a transistor (not that many are being made any
more!!)

> Anyway, I'm not trying to knock tubes.  I like radios that glow in the
> dark too, but transistors have all but replaced them.  Sorry.

Bill you are wrong. I don't know of a single radio manufacturer that
uses large numbers of discrete transistors in their manufacturing
now.

They almost all use integrated circuits, usually LSI ones at that.
The single transistor is occasionally used in some OLDER radios
as a final amplifier stage, or in a linear, but then MOST of those
are now MOSFETS rather than JFETS.

FAR more tubes are used as linear amplifiers still.

Sorry but his point stands that 6L6 tubes are still being
manufactured and sold, whereas transistors have pretty much gone by
the wayside.

Bry, AF4K
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