The Future of Vacuum Tubes & What Might Have Been

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In the late 1800s, researchers were seeking a way to amplify an
analog signal. The vacuum tube was invented in the early 1900s,
but scientists were also investigating the properties of
semiconductor materials. A very crude version of a transistor was
developed even before the vacuum tube, but the technology of the
day was better suited for tubes than transistors, and once the
tube was widely available, research into the transistor was
largely abandoned for the next 40 years. Tubes became the
amplifying device that made radio broadcasting possible – and
also ushered in the age of electrical recording.


A practical transistor was invented by Bell Labs in the late
1940s, but it took another 20 years before it eclipsed the tube
as the preferred technology for analog amplification. Further
development of the vacuum tube came to a halt in the early 1970s,
and by 1980, transistors had taken over all of electronics except
for a few special purpose applications. In the world of music
recording, many engineers, producers, and musicians still prefer
the sound of tubes for audio.


But what if the vacuum tube had continued to be refined? We might
have much smaller tubes that might have amazing capabilities. We
will never know, of course, because the demand is much too small
to justify the investment in improved tubes.


In this episode, I look at the history of tubes and transistors,
and speculate on what might have been. I also explore the
viability of the industry that continues to make high-quality
tubes, and the impact on all the current and vintage tube gear we
use.


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email: dwfearn@dwfearn.com
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