Valves even coming back to computers....

[michaelab]

I was reading my March 2004 edition of Sterephile and the article by Atkinson about how he recorded his latest CD when he mentioned that amongst the myriad other bits of equiment he had a Pentium 4 with a "tubed" motherboard... I thought, "No way, he doesn't mean what I think he means does he?"

He does :

Links:
http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/ax4petube.htm
http://www.aopen.nl/tech/techinside/Tube.htm

So, a PC motherboard with a built in valve based (and by the looks of it, other audiophile components) sound card. IMO taking things a little too far. Talk about spanning 100 years of science in a single product though

Michael.

 

[PBirkett]

Pretty old news that Michael

Also it doesnt say what DACs and stuff it uses, but I'd be willing to bet its still just a cheap solution such as AC97, which sounds awful (but still better than soundblaster), I would not bother with this. Get a decent soundcard instead.

Not to mention the heat issues of having a red hot valve inside a computer. No thanks. Better off getting a decent soundcard and adding a tube DAC like a CAL Sigma or ART DIO if one wants this type of sound from a PC.

 

[michaelab]

I'm not thinking of getting one. Just surprised that they existed

Michael.