On Thursday, June 6, 2002, at 01:27 PM, Mike Rosing wrote:
On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
the Brits have been calling "tubes" "valves" forever. Just like a "hood" is a "bonnet". Has nothing to do with age.
Interesting the way terms like give hints about etymology and cognates. Hood is to bonnet, in terms of clothing as well as cars, as trunk is to boot, as in booty. (Booty being a black slang term for ass; no doubt related to "trunk" as body part, as in "swim trunks.") The morphism between British English and American English gives rise to many interesting structures. Someone said something earlier about tube/valve amps giving a boost to the high end, for older, hearing-damaged rockers. I don't think the frequency response has evern been an issue...tube amps are said to have a "warmer" sound, and to have more odd harmonic distortion than transistor amps, but the frequency response of _any_ transistor or tube amp is vastly beyond what even high-end speakers and headphones can typically deliver. A modern solid state amp is essentially "flat" from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. (I haven't tested my hearing in a while, with my Test CDs, but when I do I use my Stax electrostatics or my Etymotics instead of my Mirage speakers. Last I checked, my hearing was rolling off at around 16-17 KHz.) --Tim May --Tim May "Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound"