Worked in an electronics shop for a while when I left school. We had a valve tester and Saturday mornings people would come in with a bag of valves to be tested to find why their TV was playing up. I got quite good at guessing which valve was going to be duff by chatting to the customer about the symptoms while I was doing the testing .
yes some old valve machines were very good and quite complex to use well. valves in audio are still very much in use and very popular … we have lots of folk using valve gear on the audio forum im a part of. in fact my last amp which was new was a hybrid, with a valve pre and used transistors as output. was very good.
i now just use wireless headphones now tho and am all digital having sold all my kit. ive still got a large wedge of vinyl tho..
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