Cool looking soundcard

[Geoffcin]

Tube lovers you got your wish!

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/.../ax4ge_tube-g/

[Worf101]

As a musician for pay since the Johnson administriation.... why in God's name would I want to replace tubes in my computer as well as my bass amps? This makes about as much sense as a fish with a bicycle...

Da Worfster

[Lensman]

Tube lovers you got your wish!

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/.../ax4ge_tube-g/

I remember when this came out! An interesting idea, but I don't think they make these motherboards anymore and I suspect I they didn't sell well. Even with my love of audio, I was somewhat dubious about the merits of such a design because:

1. The audio benefits are likely to be cancelled out by the surrounding lower level components and lack of shielding from other devices.

2. The relative gain in sound performance is also offset by the noise the cooling fans in a computer of that level are likely to make (I have seven in my main system).

3. Heat is a tremendous problem in current systems. A tube only makes things worse. In fact, a new case standard (BTX) was recently created because current airflow designs are proving increasingly inadequate as CPUs, system chipsets and other devixes like video cards run increasingly faster and consume ever more wattage. New CPU designs actually require close to 100 watts by themselves.

But I gotta admit it'd look pretty cool in a windowed case with light mods installed. And if you could custom design a really retro looking system (say something that looked like it was steam powered), it'd be awesome!

[Geoffcin]

As a musician for pay since the Johnson administriation.... why in God's name would I want to replace tubes in my computer as well as my bass amps? This makes about as much sense as a fish with a bicycle...

Da Worfster

Tubes in computers...... just like the old Univac days!

Remember to keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

[woodman]

This just has to be the dumbest idea since ............

... wait a minute, I'm still trying to think of one as dumb.

... still trying.

... nope, sorry - nothing so stupid as this has occurred to me yet (and probably won't).

As someone whe had to deal with vacuum tubes on a daily basis for about 35 years, I was ecstatic at their "funeral" ... drank a bottle of champagne and everything. The very idea that they are now heralded and revered by some poor misguided souls as the newly realized path to sonic nirvana just strikes me as both hilarious lunacy and downright scary!

[Worf101]

That nothing quite sounds like a good tube amp as far as some legendary pieces go. I mean nothing solid state is going to emulate the sound of a Fender Twin Reverb or, in my case, an original Ampeg B-15... BUT those are classic vintage rigs, my computer is not. I just don't git it and all of Lensman's comments are absolutely spot on. I'm sure this motherboard is already on the scrap heap of history...

Da Worfster