Originally Posted by kms901
Big, megawatt RF transmitters use valves.
Thanks, kms, it's what I thought. Unless anybody has different info?
Klystrons, TWTs, magnetrons for the microwaves, and more 'classic' valves for large broadcast transmitters. The exception is probably large planar arrays of smaller transmitter elements, which nowadays are solid-state.
Oh, and if you're looking for valves, look no further than your kitchen. Even today, the best way to generate a few hundred watts at 2.4GHz is the magnetron in your microwave
Valves in guitar/hi-fi amplfiers distort on different harmonics to transistors and sound better the human ear.
With HiFi being defined as less than 0.1% distortion (or some similar figure), there is no way to distinguish a valve amplifier from a transistor amplifier..... until of course you drive them into saturation, upon which the distortion is a lot more than 0.1%.... and it's no longer HiFi.... and indeed valve amplifiers saturate a bit more "gracefully" that transistor amplifier, so sound less awful.
But all hi-end Hi-Fi is basically marketing hype.
Amen.
CJ