At 12:24 AM 6/18/2006, steven c wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> I wonder what it will be like in 20-30 years? We'll have to have a
> personal machine shop!
>
No...you'll have to have a personal microchip manufactory (should
such a thing exist!). Back in my youth, you went looking for
second-hand tubes (45's were scarce...X-99's like hens' teeth!)
because resistors and capacitors were still readily available.
The good news is that National is coming out with a very interesting
replacement for the NE5532 but it appears to be only available in
surface-mount (SMD), so we'll need SMD-Dual-InLine adapters.
The real thing will be when the embedded microprocessors are no longer
repairable. At that point, the Ampex List folks will be proven correct in
keeping their AG-350s and AG-440s running since they are made of all
relatively common parts that are still easily replaceable. We just found
that Ohmite still sells the big power resistors used to reduce torque to
the reel motors as one went open on someone's Ampex.
BUT, the real trick will be to bring everything on the tape machine out to
a USB port so that all the transport logic/tension logic etc can be
recreated on a generic Windows box thus saving us from having to maintain
obsolete embedded microprocessors.
Atwater-Kent used to seal their power-supply components in about a
half-ton of asphalt, either on the assumption they would never need
replacement or else what you ACTUALLY needed was a new (Atwater-Kent)
receiving set!
Burwen "patented" his noise-reduction filtering in the DNF-1201 consumer
device (and perhaps the pro devices as well) by grinding off the part
numbers and using semi-obscure chips like quad opamps.
The idea of actually FIXING something seems to have died two or
three decades ago...no wonder we're running out of landfill space!
And even the module-level, board-swapping level of repair is so costly
that it often makes economic sense to replace the entire unit rather than
an assembly that's 50-60% the cost of a replacement unit.
Of course, we could look at it that we're helping raise the level of
Michigan's land so it will less prone to flooding...
Remember when drugstores and supermarkets all had tube testers,
and you took all the tubes out of your TV (hoping you'd remember
how to put them back in their sockets?) and "tested" them and
bought replacements for the ones where the needle didn't swing
into the green "Good" area of the meter?!
Yup, I do!
Cheers,
Richard