Fake glow LED under valve in commercial devices

[kenpeter]

Blackstar Drive-HT.

Looks simple enough on the outside, but inside:
Extremely complicated, 3 PCBs crammed in there.
Only thing I'm claiming "fake" about it is the glow.
Clearly they didn't trust ECC83 filament to provide
the required lightshow.

 

[M Gregg]

One word

“marketability”

Cruise lights for tube amps.

Regards
M. Gregg

 

[taj]

I've noticed a couple Chinese amps with high intensity blue LEDs mounted in the tube socket. They're clearing aiming at a young-ish and dumb-ish marketing demographic (which I believe is a huge one.)

..Todd

 

[mark02131]

I saw some amps including a McIntosh preamp that had LED's under the tubes, I don't like it at all, it takes away from the warm glow of the filaments

 

[chrisb]

Well, in some cases the LEDs might be actually serving as part of bias or CCS circuit, so it's not necessarily always about "marketing"

 

[DSP_Geek]

Well, in some cases the LEDs might be actually serving as part of bias or CCS circuit, so it's not necessarily always about "marketing"

Paging Stu Yaniger to the red courtesy LED....

 

[SY]

Wait until you see the next one. It will make the RLD seem... understated.

 

[Tubelab_com]

WLD? Three camera phone flash LED's in series with each cathode.

 

[Michael Koster]

Anything but blue!

 

[Frank Berry]

Well, in some cases the LEDs might be actually serving as part of bias or CCS circuit, so it's not necessarily always about "marketing"

The LED's could be located under the chassis. If they're positioned under the tubes to give them a nice blue glow, it's all about marketing.

 

[el156]

The chinese discoverd that when a tube is under blue light of a LED, the electrons move faster inside the tube,and consequently the sound is MUCH BETTER !

 

[VictoriaGuy]

Come on guys!
I thought it was common knowledge that spectral balancing of tubes was necessary. The blue is needed to balance the red from the filament.
Otherwise the whole amplifier loses speed and the spectral imbalance-induced graininess adds an unpleasant overlay to the sound.

And you call yourself experts????

;-)

 

[SVinzant]

Couldn't I just color out outside of my tubes with a blue Sharpie and get the same effect?

 

[el156]

Couldn't I just color out outside of my tubes with a blue Sharpie and get the same effect?

No way ! The trick is in the light ! The photons are much faster than the electrons inside the tube ,and they push the electrons against the plate, wich helps improving the sound.

 

[Wavebourn]

By the way, I wanted to place peak overload indicator LEDs under tubes, but decided that it would cause some interferences through coupling to tube pins and wires around...

Flashing tubes would look impressive!

 

[mark02131]

No way ! The trick is in the light ! The photons are much faster than the electrons inside the tube ,and they push the electrons against the plate, wich helps improving the sound.

I couldn't hear any difference with the McIntosh preamp with them switched on or off.

 

[Trout]

I wish someone would start making the bottles out of that old fashion Vaseline Glass.

Get that really Erie Green Glow like the SciFi movies use

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[tomchr]

I actually consider covering the bias LEDs in my latest design with black heatshrink tubing or black enamel. If the glow from the LEDs overpower the glow from the tubes, I will cover the LEDs. At least the LEDs are red...

I've seen new tubes (JJ I think) with blue glass. Weird I say... Weird.

~Tom

 

[DF96]

A blue LED will cause more photo-emission from the metal so it could cause more noise. I doubt if it will be noticeable, but I think I once read that phono stages run better in the dark.

 

[Pano]

I wish someone would start making the bottles out of that old fashion Vaseline Glass.

Indeed! Yellow by day, glowing by UV light. Fun stuff. Who ever thought of putting uranium into glass?