TUBE ON A CHIP

F1nut
F1nut Posts: 50,565
in Electronics
This is extremely exciting news, a game changer if there ever was one.

http://www.korg.com/us/news/2015/012212/
Political Correctness'.........defined

"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

President of Club Polk

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Comments

  • nooshinjohn
    nooshinjohn Posts: 25,420
    Still a long way to go before these will make an I-pod sound even close to mediocre, much less good. Great to see tube tech making another leap forward though.
    The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD

    “When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson
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  • headrott
    headrott Posts: 5,496
    That is an interesting idea. I would absolutely have to hear it before believing it sounds as "rich" and has the great harmonics of a "true tube" though. I am not saying it doesn't, but will believe it when I hear it is all I'm saying. :)

    The anode, cathode, filiament, and grid must have a compromise to be as small as it looks. Perhaps I am mistaken though; I can't wait to hear one!

    Thanks for posting Jesse!
    Relayer-Big-O-Poster.jpg
    Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
    "I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion." :\
    My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....

    "Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson

    "Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee
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  • dromunds
    dromunds Posts: 10,009
    "easy to power on batteries" also sounds appealing.
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  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,967
    about time hardware starts taking a leap forward. Love the idea, not so sure about attaching to circuit boards though. It may use less energy, but what about any heat issues being so close to the circuit boards ?

    Won't make it any easier to tube roll either it looks like.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
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    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,804
    edited February 2015
    http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=639767&highlight=korg

    Not really what I'd consider a 'tube on a chip' (although there have been some cold-cathode "solid state vacuum tubes" proposed and/or prototyped before); the Nutube :-P is a purpose-built version of a VFD (vacuum fluorescent display) to work as a small-signal triode. Folks in the DIY/hobbyist community have "repurposed" regular old VFDs as triode amplifier tubes with (well, frankly) mediocre results. One of the local New England vacuum tube hifi gurus played around with 'em a bit and moved on.

    http://hackaday.com/2013/11/09/vfd-display-becomes-an-amplifier/
    http://www.eham.net/articles/20809+
    http://www.qsl.net/m0ayf/VFD-Regen.html
    https://threeneurons.wordpress.com/vfd-stuff/

    BUT, of course, a "VFD" style device that has been deliberately designed to function as a triode (presumably using low plate voltage) is much more likely to be linear enough for "hifi" -- but the intended application looks to be for MI/PA amplifiers and effects, given the source; so it may not be a device intended for low-distortion applications.



    Might have some application in hifi, but we'll have to see.

    EDIT: This, I think is the basic idea of the monolithic cold cathode triode I mentioned above: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=1019936
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  • skrol
    skrol Posts: 3,375
    Vacuum Transistor

    http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185027-the-vacuum-tube-strikes-back-nasas-tiny-460ghz-vacuum-transistor-that-could-one-day-replace-silicon-fets
    Stan

    Main 2ch:
    Polk LSi15 (DB840 upgrade), Parasound: P/LD-1100, HCA-1000A; Denon: DVD-2910, DRM-800A; Benchmark DAC1, Monster HTS3600-MKII, Grado SR-225i; Technics SL-J2, Parasound PPH-100.

    HT:
    Marantz SR7010, Polk: RTA11TL (RDO198-1, XO and Damping Upgrades), S4, CS250, PSW110 , Marantz UD5005, Pioneer PL-530, Panasonic TC-P42S60

    Other stuff:
    Denon: DRA-835R, AVR-888, DCD-660, DRM-700A, DRR-780; Polk: S8, Monitor 5A, 5B, TSi100, RM7, PSW10 (DXi104 upgrade); Pioneer: CT-6R; Onkyo CP-1046F; Ortofon OM5E, Marantz: PM5004, CD5004, CDR-615; Parasound C/PT-600, HCA-800ii, Sony CDP-650ESD, Technics SA 5070, B&W DM601
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