Meeting Supply for Vacuum Tubes - Time to Save Those Tubes?

The situation in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia are having a significant impact on the global supply of tubes to the audio industry. Both Ukraine and Russia are important suppliers of raw materials, and the sanctions are likely to cause further strain over the supply of source materials that all manufacturers of tubes need. In China there are also significant disruptions caused by pandemic lockdowns, transportation challenges, and cost increases. How many tube manufacturing operations remain viable? Western Electric says there is hope... in the US!

It's a known fact that both Ukraine and Russia are important suppliers of raw materials, particularly steel and aluminum, but also many critical parts and components for the electronic industry. The invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions imposed over Russia are obviously having a significant impact over the global supply of tubes. Tube Amp Doctor Musikhandels GmbH, based in Germany, just released a situation update regarding the supply of amplifier tubes.

"There is nothing quite like a quality tube amplifier," states the author in the introduction to this directly heated triode amplifier project. The idea for the amplifier started from the author's discovery of the Loftin-White circuit. The author chose the 2A3 directly heated triode power tube to implement the Loftin-White circuit. The 2A3 vacuum tube is a power triode capable of outputting 3.5 W in a single-ended Class A configuration. This article was originally published in audioXpress, August 2013.