The little tubes are sometimes double valves - that is, there's actually two devices inside one glass envelope. At this scale, even 300V is too high. Typical small signal tubes will operate somewhere around 150V at low currents. As for an output transformer, they are typically used in the big power output stages. A small signal stage like this can be capacitor coupled or even DC-coupled (with some additional servo circuitry) without trouble.
It may not be a hoax, but it certainly looks like a cheap gimmick.
Oh yeah, not to mention, tubes are also microphonic! That's right, folks - now you can listen to the hum of your PC amplified through it's audio circuits!
"Most tubes are going to require abot 16,000 volts to the grid."
um... try 160V, at about 5-10mA for your typical preamp tube. Then about 6 or 12V for the filament. Piece of cake for a switched power supply...
The small tubes will contribute some heat, but we're not talking power output tubes, so the extra heat generation should be minimal - well within a PCs cooling limits.
As an audiophile and electrical engineer, I can tell you that no serious music (tech) lover will take this seriously. It's common knowledge amongst audiophiles that high quality audio can only be reproduced outside the electrically noisy environment inside a PC case. But more than that, audiophiles are a particular, fussy lot, and they all have their own preferences for this tube type or that.
Who are you kidding, AOpen? Leave the high-end audio to the specialists, and leave it off your mobo!
Re:GeForce with on board tuner?
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The Age of Nvidia
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· Score: 3, Interesting
The external tuner box is actually superior to having the tuner right on the card. This is because analog signals coming in from your cable and going out to your TV can be isolated from all the electrical noise inside your computer case. Even without the external box, you'd still need one of those awful breakout cables for all the connectors you need, so why not get better performance while you're at it?
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It may not be a hoax, but it certainly looks like a cheap gimmick.
Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon
Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon
um... try 160V, at about 5-10mA for your typical preamp tube. Then about 6 or 12V for the filament. Piece of cake for a switched power supply...
The small tubes will contribute some heat, but we're not talking power output tubes, so the extra heat generation should be minimal - well within a PCs cooling limits.
Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon
Who are you kidding, AOpen? Leave the high-end audio to the specialists, and leave it off your mobo!
Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon
The external tuner box is actually superior to having the tuner right on the card. This is because analog signals coming in from your cable and going out to your TV can be isolated from all the electrical noise inside your computer case. Even without the external box, you'd still need one of those awful breakout cables for all the connectors you need, so why not get better performance while you're at it?