audioXpress May 2021 Celebrates Its Glass Audio and Audio Electronics Roots

Our May 2021 Glass Audio Special edition is certain to inform and inspire you. We reveal what is happening at Western Electric's new Rossville Works in Georgia, where production of 300B tubes is ongoing, we explain how to draw tube load lines, and we offer a valuable preamplifier design that enables you to compare the sound of tube and solid-state circuits from the same audio source. There's also a versatile stereo tube amplifier design to build, and plenty more audio electronics theory and practice in this edition. Now available online and in print.

VANA, Ltd. is now the North American distributor for European Audio Team’s (E.A.T.) line of vacuum tubes made in the Czech Republic. E.A.T. is dedicated to hand making the finest 300B and KT88 tubes tested on custom made instruments to meet the highest standards. E.A.T. Vacuum Tubes are painstakingly handcrafted within a former Tesla factory in the Czech Republic, under the supervision of Jozefina Lichtenegger and using the manufacturing equipment previously in the Tesla Vrsovice factory.

The 150-year-old Western Electric will reintroduce its flagship product to market, the famous 300B electron tube. In time for its 80th anniversary, the 300B is returning to production this year, and the Rossville-based company announced they will restart the manufacturing in a brand new facility. Charles Whitener, Western Electric CEO, also confirmed the company will unveil a new single-ended amplifier called the 91E, as an homage to its famous predecessor the 91A, first introduced in 1936.

In this article, Richard Honeycutt provides a brief description of the main tube types used in audio applications, from triodes to tetrodes and pentodes, describing its uses, features and potential benefits. If you are looking for a quick reference reading about tubes that have been used in audio amplification this article is a great start. This article was originally published in audioXpress, May 2013 as part of the Hollow-State Electronics monthly column by Richard Honeycutt.