Sander deWaal wrote:


(Bruce J. Richman) said:

To be honest, transistors almost never fail in switching circuits.
They have near infinite life, as opposed to tubes.

I've had transistors and other parts fail (resistors, capacitors) in various
pieces of solid state equipment that I've owned. Of course, not being an
electronics engineero or repairman, I had to take the equipment to a service
center for an appropriate diagnosis.

Yep, but you're most likely talking about audio/video stuff.

I was.

Transistors used as switches or performing logical functions like
flipflops, dividers, gates etc. are very reliable.
Remember there are millions of transistors in your PC !


Has anybody developed a tube-based sound card?

The average person owning such equipment, however, has neither the expertise
or
equipment (e.g. voltmeter, oscilloscope, etc.) to determine why a particular
circuit malfunctions and/or what parts might need replacement. When a tube
fails, it's pretty obvious and easy to replace by the average user.

Normal worn tubes can be replaced, but in case a tube fails due to
e.g. leaky coupling caps, the replacement tube will soon fail as well.
Many guitar players have this experience!


I never had that problem during my clarinet and tenor saxophone playing days.



--
Sander de Waal
" SOA of a KT88? Sufficient. "




Bruce J. Richman