Dang- check it out- new miniaturized vacuum tube

[Atmasphere]

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2015/01/29/korg-noritake-introduce-futuristic-nutube-vacuum-tubes/

Korg has the pockets to back something like this up. I first read about 'cold cathode' vacuum-tube circuits over 25 years ago but this is not cold cathode technology- instead looks like the next step in conventional tube technology.

 

[amirm]

Wow. That is pretty amazing. Didn't realize there was research to optimize the vacuum tube.

 

[Steve Williams]

That is fascinating. Does this mean all new tube components need to be retooled to accept these new tubes

 

[Atmasphere]

I have no idea. Korg USA does not know much about it at this point.

 

[amirm]

It is not pin compatible of course so you do need new implementations. But I don't see that as a big deal. Hopefully the thing is manufacturable and economical so that we can have small, cool, reliable and efficient tube implementations.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Cool stuff look forward to hear how these will sound

 

[treitz3]

That's what I am looking forward to.....the sound. Whether it's good or bad is yet to be heard.

Tom

 

[LL21]

will be interesting to if/how it gets adopted into designs...

 

[c1ferrari]

Alright Korg

 

[Diapason]

Hopefully the thing is manufacturable and economical so that we can have small, cool, reliable and efficient tube implementations.

Goodness, I'm not sure that's what I'd want (although I'll take reliable and efficient!)

 

[esldude]

Come on now. We know vintage tech is better. If you want compact tubes, the Nuvistor is still the way to go. This new Korg stuff is totally unproven. Even the service life isn't much better than a Nuvistor.


Still pretty cool tech.

 

[TheMadMilkman]

Come on now. We know vintage tech is better. If you want compact tubes, the Nuvistor is still the way to go. This new Korg stuff is totally unproven. Even the service life isn't much better than a Nuvistor.

This is an absolutely asinine statement. Of course it's unproven; it's just been announced!

 

[DSkip]

Is there any other industry where this tech could thrive outside of audio?

 

[Atmasphere]

Well it looks like they made it for use in their analog synthesizers. Korg has acquired rights to the ARP lineup, and has been making an updated version of the ARP Odyssey, which was a classic and ARP's answer to the Minimoog. Nice linear devices are quite handy for certain applications in analog synths; I don't doubt that they see some advantage in this.

Analog synthesizers have really been the rising star in keyboards in the last 5 years or so. Sequential Circuits (Dave Smith, founder), who made the lauded Prophet 5, is back with the Prophet 6, Moog, despite Bob Moog's death, is doing quite well; you can even buy brand-new Mellotrons with original tape sets (of course, they are a lot more reliable!). Digital synths just don't seem to have the panache. So it makes a lot of sense that Korg would do this, they have the deep pockets to pull it off.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Absolutely love the notion of this as well. Thanks Atmasphere, news like this renews your faith in a future where sound quality can still be about our experience of sound and not only about efficiencies and the measured performance of devices.

It'll certainly be very interesting to hear what is the sonic nature of the Korg valve too given its parentage. Hope it has the better qualities of both it's valve and it's SS parents.

Also we can hope they bring out a NOS version first

 

[Brian Walsh]

Anybody remember Peter Moncrieff's "tubistor" he showed years ago in Las Vegas?

 

[Duke LeJeune]

Well it looks like they made it for use in their analog synthesizers. Korg has acquired rights to the ARP lineup, and has been making an updated version of the ARP Odyssey, which was a classic and ARP's answer to the Minimoog. Nice linear devices are quite handy for certain applications in analog synths; I don't doubt that they see some advantage in this.

Analog synthesizers have really been the rising star in keyboards in the last 5 years or so. Sequential Circuits (Dave Smith, founder), who made the lauded Prophet 5, is back with the Prophet 6, Moog, despite Bob Moog's death, is doing quite well; you can even buy brand-new Mellotrons with original tape sets (of course, they are a lot more reliable!). Digital synths just don't seem to have the panache. So it makes a lot of sense that Korg would do this, they have the deep pockets to pull it off.

Interesting that these legacy technologies (analog synth, vacuum tubes) are prized by musicians to the point that Korg would invest in developing the miniaturized vacuum tube. I'd love to see what you can do with it! When you have an idea of what sort of impedance load a miniaturized-tube OTL amp would want to see, let me know.

 

[Atmasphere]

^^

Actually I am very interested to see how it can be applied to a preamplifier.