Hi,

There are a few advantages to sticking to long obsolete technologies like Valves and Vinyl. You do not have to chnage what you have every 15 minutes for the latest, the technology is mature and you can just get on listening to music. That is before the sound comes into this at all.

The marketshare of Valve Amplifiers used to be 100% of all amplifiers sold. Since then the cheaper but much worse sounding transistor amplifiers have taken over the cheap and mid-fi market, higher up Valves have never been away.... ;-)

Surprisingly most Computer Audio forums on the various High End Boards tend to be dead, halve of the people hanging out there are actually the "Valves'n'Vinyl" brigade seeking decent sound from digital audio (yet again), the rest are chatting about the relative merits of low grade soundcards, external USB processors and Apple Lossless vs. Monkeyaudio vs. WMA Lossless....

Computer Audio (as opposed to iPod's and iRivers) has yet to make material inroads in the HighEnd.

So usually a few people get very excited when the new gizmos get mentioned, creating a lot of noise, but most seem ambivalent....

Not to be negative about PC Audio, it is no doubt the future, but will take to get into the true High End and out of massproduced "LoFi".

Ciao T