PC Motherboard with a vacuum tube

From: R. D. Davis <rdd_at_rddavis.org>
Date: Sat Sep 7 10:23:00 2002

Quothe Bob Lafleur, from writings of Sat, Sep 07, 2002 at 10:23:43AM -0400:
> First off, motherboards don't have built-in amplifiers beyond the normal
> line-level output. Is that what this tube does, amplifies to line-level?

The tube is apparently functioning as a pre-amplifier; even it it's
attached to a power amplifier that uses transistors, it can add some
of that "tube sound" to the final output. Of course, if they were
going for true hi-fi, surely they'd add some extras like a miniature
record player designed to play miniature 33 RPM records, read by a
laser, instead of CDs. Of course, what's the point when people are
going to be listening to streaming audio, and other forms of digitized
(low-fi) audio?

> If one wanted tube aplificiation from a regular PC, they could simply
> hook a tube amp up to the line-level outputs of a regular motherboard.

...and if they want something that emphasizes the tube sound, they
could build a TubeHead (from PAIA) pre-amp into a custom PeeCee
cabinet, and use the output from some random sound card as the input,
and it would probably cost less than purchasing that motherboard.

> And what about the 5.1 audio? One tube isn't going to handle all those

Not sure what 5.1 audio is, but a single tube could be a dual triode,
and hence be used for stereo (is there such a thing as a quad triode?)

-- 
Copyright (C) 2002 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: 
All Rights Reserved            an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & 
rdd_at_rddavis.org  410-744-4900  her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org         beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Received on Sat Sep 07 2002 - 10:23:00 BST

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