Originally Posted by
Marco
Indeed, I believe that they were in common use from the early 60s. Folks (as ever) were all too keen to embrace the (then) new technology, particularly EEs, when valves became more unreliable, as production quality took a nosedive in the late 60s.
I'm reliably informed that transistors were heralded as the new 'sonic saviour', signalling an end to the 'faff' of using tubes, simplifying the design of audio circuits accordingly. I'm told, however, that some of the early SS amps sounded truly dire, until the technology matured enough and was properly understood by engineers, in order to make the most out of it.
In terms of the effect of the above on recording studios [the initial transition from valve to transistor equipment], I firmly believe that some of the awful sounding, dull as ditchwater recordings on vinyl, from the early 70s, were as a result of sound engineers and technicians still getting to grips with the new equipment - and in some cases failing miserably!
Marco.
They were in common use by the early sixties but mainly in transistor radios. Transistors were very expensive at that time and things which had no need for portability tended to remain valved for a few more years.
The limitations of very early transistors were well understood by EE's and in more demanding applications the best virtues of both were exploited in hybrids for a long time. An example is that Marconi Instruments signal generator I recently got. It was built in 1968 but still all valved other than the regulated supply for the valve heaters. now the reason for this is largely that it was still a damn good instrument and they had production lines and supply chain set up to build them.... The salient point being that they came out about 1960. No new products from them used valves by then and in fact some all transistor items of test gear were introduced by them in the early to mid sixties. TV sets were hybrid for a long time and well into the mid seventies!
They did not simplify the design of amplifiers and there was no issue with valves becoming unreliable.
It was generally early transistor power amps that sounded dire and this did not carry over to other things such as mixing desks so no there was no period of getting used to transistor technology as such and no period when recordings suddenly went bad due to transistors. Late sixties transistor mixing desks would have worked exactly the same in use as a valve one.
Initially and in fact for quite a few years valve power amps would still have been used to drive the cutter head as there were no transistor ones available of sufficient power and reliability. I would guestimate most cutter head power amps would be valves until around 1972 ish.
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