New Akai uses tubes! (1 Viewer)

[Scott Giles]

The information is pretty scarce, but Akai has a 100 and 120 watt receiver with HDMI switching and 7 vacuum tubes for the amp, apparently. I've only seen two articles both reporting on CES standouts. Both compare in price to "solid state" competitors. Interesting? If anyone knows or has heard more...

 

[Kevin T]

7 tubes seems like a small number for a home theater receiver. my tube monos use 8 tubes each to produce about 130 watts before clipping. the tubes are likely in the preamp section with solid state / digital amplification. who knows though? i guess we'll have to wait and see.

kevin t

 

[Kevin C Brown]

That's surprising, I think. I've seen Akai plasmas, and they are cheap and not very good. (I got the impression that some little-known Korean or Chinese company licensed the name.) Be interesting to find out more.

 

[Scott_N]

Kevin T

The Akai uses technology similar to the Butler multichannel tube amp and really is more of a hybrid than a normal push-pull tube amp. The tubes are supposed to last a very long time in this design so maybe these receivers might lure more people into the tube world!

 

[Chris Sherman]

Akais new Grande series AVR8500&8510 use one vacuum tube per channel . They are solid state designs with the final stage coupled with a new technology "blue tube", cool running , long life tubes."Akai Brings the warm sound of tubes down to affordable levels and eliminates the output transformer problems that plagued previous vacuum tube designs"List prices are $899 and $1199 100 and 125 watts per channel respectively all current surround formats inluding Dolby headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker. Both models include complete HDMI switching,as well as DVI-bypassinterface and two HD ready component video inputs.

 

[Jake S]

I think it must be a sign of something that Akai and Samsung are beginning to angle in to the mid-fi market. What it's a sign of I'm not sure.

 

[Dave Lindhorst]

Next thing you know they will be putting points carburators and generators back in cars. Like I would buy that idea nah