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Old 09-05-2011, 06:49 AM
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Chad Hauris Chad Hauris is offline
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I know that Rowe jukeboxes used tubes at least into the early 70's and I think they may have offered the option of a tube or solid state amp then into the mid 70's (until the selection circuitry began to be computerized). They still even used a 5U4 rectifier tube/7868 output tubes with a solid-state phono pre-amp.
I have a McGohan tube type PA amp which I think is from 1974, also a Bogen PA amp from '74, they also use 7868's.
Hammond organs with tubes were made up through '74 too.

There must be something about 1974 which really prompted most makers of all kinds of devices to drop tubes, maybe tubes themselves began to become more expensive due to less overall demand? Or solid state devices somehow became more cost-effective?
I know some PA/Jukebox makers still used tubes because they thought they were tougher and less prone to sudden failure than solid state devices. Although Seeburg began to use solid state amps very early, like around '63 or so.
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