Fatman iTube iPod Amp

[ifingers]

<a href="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/music/2006/06/fatman-itube-ipod-valve-amplifier.html"><img src="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/i/stuff/itube-fatman-tla-ipod.jpg" alt="Fatman iPod Amp"></a>
The <a href="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/music/2006/06/fatman-itube-ipod-valve-amplifier.html">Fatman iTube Valve iPod Amp and Dock</a> looks kind of sweet, I wonder if it sounds as good as it looks?

[kilroydegeek]

Valve amps are good room heaters but the truly environmentally friendly audiophile goes for mosfet power amps. Most of the noise and distortion advanatages of thermionic transistance with none of the disadvantages (heat, warmup times, power bills.)

Nice industrial design, though.

[ifingers]

fair point, mr killjoydegeek

what if I built a windmill to power it?

[kilroydegeek]

You need one of these

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MG4512

and one of these

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=JM5085

And I <a href="http://www.macidol.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5871">split the rest off</a> to keep this thread on topic

[slumbering]

<a href="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/music/2006/06/fatman-itube-ipod-valve-amplifier.html"><img src="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/i/stuff/itube-fatman-tla-ipod.jpg" alt="Fatman iPod Amp"></a>
The <a href="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/music/2006/06/fatman-itube-ipod-valve-amplifier.html">Fatman iTube Valve iPod Amp and Dock</a> looks kind of sweet, I wonder if it sounds as good as it looks?

Wow, i don't think i'm any older than most of you here, but jebus, i look at the photo and it does NOT compute for me. I must be so out of touch.

There are some amber glassy things that look like salt shakers or dispensers of some sort, filled with Chanel No. 5, or something.

I mean, what is all that stuff? Nothing makes sense when i look at it.

I've never had an iPod or seen one IRL, though, so that could be part of the problem. Although that is the one thing i recognize. The iPod.

[maggieo]

<a href="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/music/2006/06/fatman-itube-ipod-valve-amplifier.html"><img src="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/i/stuff/itube-fatman-tla-ipod.jpg" alt="Fatman iPod Amp"></a>
The <a href="http://www.ipresents.co.uk/music/2006/06/fatman-itube-ipod-valve-amplifier.html">Fatman iTube Valve iPod Amp and Dock</a> looks kind of sweet, I wonder if it sounds as good as it looks?

There are some amber glassy things that look like salt shakers or dispensers of some sort, filled with Chanel No. 5, or something.

I mean, what is all that stuff?

Those are vacuum tubes, Slumbs. The precursor to the transistor. Guitar amps use them to great effect and, IMO, a tube amp sounds miles better than anything else. MOSFET be damned.

[kilroydegeek]

That probably rates you as younger than the rest of us

The glass thingies are thermionic valves (AKA vacuum tubes), what the wireless used to rely on for amplification and oscillation before those clever japanese figured how to put transistors into those newfangled radio thingies, and ultimately, squeeze a million transisters on a single chip of silicon the size of a little fingernail. (And that's just science fiction stuff )

[slumbering]

That probably rates you as younger than the rest of us

Not younger, just lost in my own little universe

[maggieo]

That probably rates you as younger than the rest of us

The glass thingies are thermionic valves (AKA vacuum tubes), what the wireless used to rely on for amplification and oscillation before those clever japanese figured how to put transistors into those newfangled radio thingies

Excuse me, but the transistor was invented at Bell Labs, right here in the United States of America and the first transistor radios were made by General Electric, also in the U.S.A..

[kilroydegeek]

The keywords were "figured out how to put them into radios" although I confess, on re-reading, in my attempt to be humourous, I was ambiguous in my presentation and accept the correction (I should also have said, "...fit them into tiny radios..." )

[maggieo]

The keywords were "figured out how to put them into radios" although I confess, on re-reading, in my attempt to be humourous, I was ambiguous in my presentation and accept the correction (I should also have said, "...fit them into tiny radios..." )

Again, it was the US that led in miniaturization of transistorized devices, spurred on by the needs of the space program, who had vaguely pathetic, underpowered rockets that couldn't lift very heavy payloads, unlike the Soviets, who had powerful rockets that could lift any number of tube radios into orbit.

Sorry, I'm a pedant when it comes to this stuff.

Japanese companies were known not for small size, but for style and marketing. Panasonic, in particular was groundbreaking in its transistor radio designs. Remember the donut-like radio that you could wear like a bracelet or crack open and sit on the table?

Man, I love radios.

[kilroydegeek]

...Sorry, I'm a pedant when it comes to this stuff...

And rightly so! I was being too facetious for my own good.

Man, I love radios.

Likewise, and the art of radio, too. It's why I resist all attempts for management to move me into TV sound.

[maggieo]

I listen to Radio Australia (via shortwave) at least once a month (usually catch it once a fortnight, since I'm an insomniac and have a Sony shortwave receiver next to my bed) and BBC World Service (via local FM rebroadcast) every night. There's nothing better than radio, well done.

[Snow123]

There are some amber glassy things that look like salt shakers or dispensers of some sort, filled with Chanel No. 5, or something.
I mean, what is all that stuff? Nothing makes sense when i look at it.
I've never had an iPod or seen one IRL, though, so that could be part of the problem.

[johnmusic88]

wow that looks insane i want one!