True. In the early 90s I was reading that tube amps were on their way out and would be gone soon. They sure seem to be taking their time.
It will never happen, electrons travelling in vacuum is too fundamentally important to go away. It is currently used and researched in medical, military and computer applications, although it's importance in audio will always be influenced by trends. I accept that some people remembers golden eras in music and buy amps accordingly, but as generations age stuff fall out of fashion. Time alone is not always a strong enough factor to recruit kids to tubes. Maybe in the golden future amp modelling is obsolete and laughed at, and straight tube amps is hip again🙂
The 90's were rough for tube worshippers, but my old mentor in the tube business worked with development in the Mullard factory in the lste 60's to early 70's. There was at the time frantic activity with science panels discussing the dark future for tubes, the dutch (philips) leading the way. Some of the conclusions were interresting, but the fact in retrospect is that the technology never went away.
