The new Vox MV50 amp announced at namm that actually uses the NuTube:
http://www.guitarplayer.com/gear/1012/vox-announces-nutube-powered-mv50-guitar-amp/61460
http://www.voxamps.com/MV50
 
info about the NuTube:
http://nutube.co/
 
 
Original announcement from 2015:
http://www.korg.com/us/news/2015/012212/
 
 

they look extremely fragile.
 
 
 

Warning

DO NOT exceed filament rating (0.7V 17mA).
Excess filament voltage will easily burn out the filament!
A red-heated filament shows excess voltage.
 
 
they are also microphonic.
 
 
but the vid of the amp sounds pretty cool

batsbrew
they look extremely fragile.
DO NOT exceed filament rating (0.7V 17mA).
Excess filament voltage will easily burn out the filament!
A red-heated filament shows excess voltage.
 they are also microphonic.
 but the vid of the amp sounds pretty cool

Yep...  fragile, microphonic: a real tube!
 
This is very exciting for me. I design hardware. I will design a preamp using this tube.
I hope they come down in price eventually. Right now, a private individual can purchase one for 49 dollars.
 
I have decided that on my first NuTube design I will use an LM334 constant current source set at 17 mA
to drive the filament. That way, it will always run the same regardless of supply voltage and will be protected from voltage surges. This should make the tube last a long time too. I will make the plate voltage variable as a means of adjusting the gain of the tube.
 

I think it looks interesting and with the low voltage requirement I'm wondering if we'll see more tube preamps in the future.

rsinger
I think it looks interesting and with the low voltage requirement I'm wondering if we'll see more tube preamps in the future.

Yeah, and it may be ideal for using in tube condenser microphones too with its small size.
 

batsbrew
[font="'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px"]Warning



DO NOT exceed filament rating (0.7V 17mA).
Excess filament voltage will easily burn out the filament!

 
That's true of all valves, excessive filament voltage can kill them quite quickly. Though that's something only the circuit designer can ensure doesn't happen. Doesn't mean that a valve is fragile though, most last quite a long time especially if used in pre-amps and similar low-power circuits.
 
 

batsbrew
 
they are also microphonic.

Which is not true of all valves, and is a serious down-side for use in things like guitar amps, especially combos where the speaker rattling the valves a bit is pretty much unavoidable unless the output power is very low indeed.
 
There used to be lots of types of miniature valves, all of which disappeared with the rise of the transistor which does the same job electronically (if not sonically) at a much lower cost.
 
Be interesting to see if the NuTube takes off. Rack mounted hardware in particular would seem a logical use for it if it's sonically suitable.