"Cal Cerise" wrote in message
om

Among people who buy expensive commercially built "High End" stereo
equipment, roughly a third to a half-very roughly-buy some tube
equipment and about a fifth buy nothing else. A tenth , very roughly
again, listen only to analog (or 'analogue'), i.e. phono records and
very many of these (though not all) have equipment with no
semiconductors at all or not in the signal path. These are rough and
unscientific figures but I'd bet they are pretty close: three dealers
I've asked pretty much concur.

Just guessing here, but all 3 dealers probably carried tubed equipment.

Just for reference, there are at least 10 stores in my area that are
arguably selling high end audio. Only one of them carries tubes and he has
the smallest store of the bunch.

So Arny is simply wrong, certainly, when he says the tube thing is
"tiny". It's small potatoes compared to Wal-Mart and Best Buy...

Thanks for contradicting yourself, Cal.

Tubed audio, particularly tubed consumer audio is as you say Cal, "small
potatoes". Nothing wrong with that, but it is how things are.

IME most people who are into consumer tubed audio either do so because
bragging about tubes make them feel special; or because they want to roll
their own power amps, and rolling one's own SS power amps takes some special
tools and skills that many amateurs lack.