Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 12/03/2025 08:00, c186282 wrote:

On 3/10/25 7:02 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Haven't americans heard of the plural? Or is you all just plain dumb?

     Mostly "just plain dumb" alas ....   :-)
    Americans are total rubes for industry HYPE.
 

Tube output stages overload more grcefuuklly than transistor ones  do, largely dues to the impossibility of applying large feedback round a less than perfect output transformer.
Modern emulation amplifiers deliberately build that into the circuitry to sound pretty much identical

    Maybe a FEW modern ones ... but 'valve' physics
   is a bit hard to emulate properly.
 

Actually its very easy, but you do need to run a bigger power sipply to do it which increases expense.

Plenty of tubes for sale everywhere, Used to be made in Russia and Czech republic.,

    China still, Czech - last I heard (HAND-made). Russia
   makes SOME, but I doubt you can get them now due to
   war sanctions.

Well I dunno, but my local valve (tube) supplier has dozens of makes of the commonly used audio ones
https://www.watfordvalves.com/

    Mostly, tubes/valves are in the domain of the
   kinda wealthy 'philes. They ARE "better" for
   audio ... but for Average Joe they're just kinda
   out of reach and Joe doesn't really GET why they
   are better. What, 50 watts ? I can buy a class-D
   with 500 for a lot less .........
 

Well yes, Its all stupid hype really.
I spent nearly 15 years designing audio gear.  Today a modern transistor   amplifier can easily exceed any valve  amplifier for hifi performance, and as far as guitars go, you can emulate and exceed valve performance for less weight and cost quite easily.
Ive side by sided a CD player and vinyl, and the CD vastly exceeds the vinyl in quality
But people believe what their prejudices tell them long after the instruments tell them they are talking shit
My cousin made a good living building valve amps for people with more money than sense.
If you are looking for quality *loud* loudspeakers, go for metal  horns above about 800 Hz. Low distortion at high power and extended frequncy range makes the sound 'detailed'
You don't have much option below that except some kind of round or elliptical speaker  - and to be honest just buy good high quality magnet types.
Below about 200Hz is big, stiff good magnets and a very solid box.
Again most of what goes into the hifi market is overhyped crap. Building a good studio monitor takes money and skill and people are not prepared to pay for that and nor do they actually notice the difference anyway. Especially on rock music
--
The New Left are the people they warned you about.