Solid State Tube replacements (again)....this time from AMT

[ItsaBass]

Looks like a rendered image to me.

It looks like anodized metal in soft lighting to me.

If they were going to fake a photo, why do such a poor job lighting the seamless? The backdrop is an unattractive dingy tone.

I don't doubt that it is over manipulated (most art directors have a heavy hand in Photoshop), but I do doubt that it is fabricated.

FWIW, I shot products on white backdrops all day, five days a week, for four years. If I had the parts on hand, I could turn out that picture in 15 minutes from powering up the flashes to ready to publish. If the studio was already set up, and I was already on staff making $20 an hour, it would cost the company 5 bucks.

I'm not saying that it is not possibly fabricated, just that is is unfair to criticize them based on something that we don't know to be true.

[ImmortalSix]

The thing is that bros will tell you that super expensive speaker wire sounds better, but will also be unable to tell the difference between expensive wire and a coat hanger in a double blind test.

http://home.provide.net/~djcarlst/abx_wire.htm
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/15412-post28.html

If you go to AV forums you'll find people who will swear up and down that the quality of an HDMI cable can affect picture quality in a way other than, it works, it doesn't work or it's all "snowy" despite that being physically impossible.

They've done studies that have shown that knowing how difficult the name of a wine is to pronounce, how much a wine costs or where a wine is from will affect a person's review of the smell and taste. These are things that do not show up in double blind tests. The Judgement of Paris is a great example of them proving this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgmen...ris_%28wine%29

I believe that user reviews of products like this will show similar bias. I'm not saying I think that these things will or won't work, just that unless it's a double blind test the results, no matter who they come from, will be too biased to be useful.

My point was that I listen to biased information from people whose bias I like --- hence my example of kevlar3000 saying an amp "jams" being more meaningful to me than objective information.

I like his guitar tone, and I trust his opinion on amps. So I'll highly value his opinion on guitar amps and their tone. If I don't like, say, sosomething's tone, a glowing review from him will mean less to me. Or I may even see that he hates something and think "I might like that then, because we have opposite opinions on tone."

A perfect example of highly biased information and why it can be more meaningful than unbiased information.

[ericmeyer4]

If it sounds good who cares if they used a faux photo.

[FretFire]

It looks like anodized metal in soft lighting to me.

If they were going to fake a photo, why do such a poor job lighting the seamless? The backdrop is an unattractive dingy tone.

I don't doubt that it is over manipulated (most art directors have a heavy hand in Photoshop), but I do doubt that it is fabricated.

FWIW, I shot products on white backdrops all day, five days a week, for four years. If I had the parts on hand, I could turn out that picture in 15 minutes from powering up the flashes to ready to publish. If the studio was already set up, and I was already on staff making $20 an hour, it would cost the company 5 bucks.

I'm not saying that it is not possibly fabricated, just that is is unfair to criticize them based on something that we don't know to be true.

I'm not criticizing them at all, just saying that when I first saw the photo I immediately thought "CGI". Half the photos of new guitar models we drool over from manufacturers have been molested in photoshop, so I don't have an issue with it from a marketing standpoint.

[ItsaBass]

I'm not criticizing them at all, just saying that when I first saw the photo I immediately thought "CGI". Half the photos of new guitar models we drool over from manufacturers have been molested in photoshop, so I don't have an issue with it from a marketing standpoint.

Not talking about you criticizing, but the other guy.

[GuitarStv]

These look pretty cool. Do they run with the same power consumption and heat output as vaccume tubes? I'd give them a try . . .

[guitfiddle]

They take fat voltages, and that would be a boon to all the Music Man amp owners...those things kill inferior tubes quickly.

[CTN]

These look pretty cool. Do they run with the same power consumption and heat output as vaccume tubes? I'd give them a try . . .

Honestly, I have no idea how to read and make sense of all that tech-speak.

[TheLivingDead]

Neato.

What ever happened with those other tube replacements that were coming out?

The ones that lit up blue n red n whatnot?

[CTN]

they're out, and available for purchase.

http://www.jetcityamplification.com/store/accessories/

[jalguitarman]

There will be a time when glass tubes will go the way of the doh-doh bird. That's just a reality. It will happen, and when it does, there either needs to be something to replace them that allows tube amps to continue to work or they'll end up in a trash heap somewhere. I'm all for advancements in technology with this. Heck, I use a modeling amp most of the time. If these things do what they are supposed to do and I can use my Marshall for years to come, I'm all for it and will gladly load up my amp with them.

I will hate to see that day come but, I do think that given the possibility of the vacume tubes extinction it would be nice to have a solid state sibling that could give you a similar sound and feel.

[Surgeon]

For the right price I'd be willing to try them... I won't rule them out before I can try them.

[Diego]

Make some KT88-alikes that will work on my Tweaker and I'll jump on them like a *****.
Wonder how they'll deal with cathode biased amps like mine?

[TheLivingDead]

they're out, and available for purchase.

http://www.jetcityamplification.com/store/accessories/

Ah yeah it was Jet City wasn't it. I haven't heard anything about em since they were announced. Guess they didn't do too well?

[GuitarStv]

they're out, and available for purchase.

http://www.jetcityamplification.com/store/accessories/

Preamp tubes tend to last quite a while . . . it's the power amp tubes that I'd be most interested in experimenting with to be honest. Has anyone here tried the Jet City preamp ones though?

[crusty philtrum]

I remember back in the 1960s in the UK, my father telling me he'd tried a new food product, artificial chicken. Even as a kid, i had to ask myself 'why? we still have chickens'.

We still have valves, and if you want valves, only valves are going to do the job.

This talk of tube failure makes me laugh ... I've used tube amps for 40 years, treated my amps very badly in my younger days, and not once, ever, have i had a problem with a valve.

Ok, maybe some people have had issues with power tubes, and i bet that's due to the modern concepts of biasing them so dammed hot ... people who do that deserve to have amp trouble. But in normal usage, tube failure is rare, and in my experience, it's simply never happened.

There is a plethora of valve amps on the market, and dozens of brands of valves. I'll wait for the technology to evolve and investigate it when the humble vacuum tube (valve) looks close to extinction, which i believe won't be for a long time yet. This is the same stance i take with modelling gear ... why would i use a pretend version of something real that I already have ?

[CTN]

Preamp tubes tend to last quite a while . . . it's the power amp tubes that I'd be most interested in experimenting with to be honest. Has anyone here tried the Jet City preamp ones though?

USAPatriot did.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/s...ght=retrovalve