On 14/11/2016 13:44, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Vir
Campestris wrote:

I'm thinking you could probably make a hybrid car based around a steam
engine. The question being why would you bother?


No, it wouldn't be practical. It would take ages to warm up and waste
loads of power.

Drifiting even further from my orginal topic: The above reminded me that
some years ago work was done on small flash-tube boilers which apparently
heated up within a few seconds and were very efficient. In general,
external combustion does have some advantages. However I can't recall who
did the work, now.

Maybe the heat from output valves could be used to generate steam to
generate electricity to help power the amplifier. Might improve the
efficiency and the lifespan of the amp. :-)

But how do you convert that steam into hot air to get back on topic?

Odd, isn't it. In this day and age, some are still so unhappy with the
performance of power amps they seek to use ancient technology. Not to
produce something smaller, cheaper, more efficient etc.


It's partly a retro thing - much like clothes, cars and all manner of
tat that people like.

On performance, some (including me) like the sound produced by decent
valve amplifiers.

Which basically means they are searching for a goal they can't define and
will never reach.


I think if you have an interest in 'hifi', that's not uncommon.
Certainly, for time to time, I think 'what if . . .' when listening to
my music system.


--
Cheers, Rob