DrumBeat: October 25, 2007
Posted by Leanan on October 25, 2007 - 8:55am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Oil hits record above $90 on OPEC report
NEW YORK - Oil futures jumped to a new record close of $90.46 a barrel Thursday on news that OPEC production increases aren't coming as fast as expected and that the cartel won't announce new output quotas when it meets next month.Prices rose in early trading on growing concerns about conflict in the Middle East and declining supplies of crude in the U.S. They got a further boost after Dow Jones Newswires reported that Oil Movements, a company that tracks oil tanker traffic, said crude shipments from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members will grow more slowly than anticipated through early November.
...Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $3.36 to settle at $90.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $90.60 earlier.
Darfur rebels attack Chinese oil field
Darfur rebels launched a brazen attack on Sudan's oil fields days before peace talks are scheduled to be held with the government, kidnapping two foreign workers and giving Chinese and other oil companies a week to leave the country, a commander said Thursday.
Now a study in this month’s Ecological Applications, a journal of the Ecological Society of America, finds that while cluster development is indeed much easier on the surrounding environment, the location of housing developments is key.
Oil Prices May Impact MDGs - UN Report
A new mechanism to measure the impact of rising oil prices on Asia’s poor offers a sobering forecast. There is a clear threat to the region’s gains in reducing the numbers living poverty.
Could Electricity Grid Become A Type Of Internet?
In the future everyone who is connected to the electricity grid will be able to upload and download packages of electricity to and from this network. At least, that is one of the transformations the electricity grid could undergo.
Israel: Cities find bright way to cut energy use
"The cheapest source of power today is saving energy," says Eran Tagor, CEO and founding partner of Power Electronics. "We have to optimize energy use and take better advantage of energy output, which is partially wasted, thus not creating more pollution by burning fuel, while not compromising the electricity supply."
Shell chief blames speculators for oil price
A leading oil industry executive has blamed speculators for driving the price of oil to record highs.Peter Voser, finance director of Shell, said that he believed that soaring oil prices were being driven by speculation and political tension, not a lack of supply.
“We find it hard to explain oil at $100 a barrel. I don’t see anyone queing for fuel and nor are there any physical shortages,” Mr Voser said.
Pace of coal-power boom slackens
Rising construction costs and potential climate legislation in Congress halt at least 18 proposed power plants in the past nine months.
Notes on the Looming Global Energy Crisis
In January, the average price for a barrel of oil was just above $50, by mid-October it had reached almost $90 a barrel, an impressive 70 percent increase without there having been a major catastrophe or war in between. International investment houses, such as Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, predict the average price will reach well above $90 a barrel and do not attribute any radical change as a catalyst for this upward trend.
Recently we mentioned ex-Fed chief Alan Greenspan’s view. It’s not the geology, it’s the politics, says he. He believes geologically there are enough proven reserves to see us right for some years. The problem is, much of the world’s reserves belong to countries not overly sympathetic to the needs of Western 4x4 drivers.A bleak report today disagrees. The Energy Research Group says we’re running out and “peak oil” is using the wrong tense. It’s “peaked oil”. 2006 was the high point, say these German researchers and it’s all downhill from here. Production will now fall 7% year on year, and will halve by 2030.
BP to pay record $50 mln criminal fine: sources
The U.S. government on Thursday will announce a record $50 million criminal penalty against London-based BP Plc for a massive explosion at its Texas City refinery that killed 15 people in 2005, sources familiar with the deal said.
Russia unlikely to increase diesel fuel deliveries to Europe
European oil producing and processing companies forecast a future major shortage of diesel fuel. They hope Russia will help them solve the problem.But foreign and Russian experts say that Russian oil companies are unlikely to seriously increase the output of diesel fuel.
Wood MacKenzie, which provides a unique range of consulting services and research products to the energy and life science industries, said the shortage of diesel fuel would grow nearly fourfold by 2020, to 60 million metric tons from 17 million metric tons in 2006.
Despite years of work and billions of dollars spent trying to repair Iraq’s decrepit electricity system, Baghdad’s power supply remains intermittent and well below pre-war levels.
Battle over Poltava oil refinery heats up
A fight for control of Ukraine’s largest oil refinery threatens the country’s oil supplies from Russia while igniting intra-governmental rivalries at home.
Pay at pump shock as £60 held by bank
The "pay at the pump" system at the re-built Esso petrol station in East Grinstead has been used for the "first and last time" by local resident Laurence Barker.He told the East Grinstead Courier he paid for £10 worth of diesel with his debit card and was "furious" when he later went to the cashpoint to draw funds but was refused.
The reason, he discovered, was that £60 had been debited from his account as a guarantee of payment.
Widespread attention for Oakland's Green Jobs Corps
The Green Jobs Corps will provide training opportunities for hard-to-employ populations (read: at-risk youths, low-income people, and those formerly incarcerated) while supporting the development of a greener economy.
Rwandan researchers highlight mini hydropower
Rwandan researchers have urged government decision-makers to provide more support for mini hydropower plant projects, which could solve the country's energy crisis and deliver power to isolated rural areas.
When I think of it now, the issue started to get political in 1988 when Dr. James Hansen [director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies] announced to Congress that global warming had started....I think back then even the rest of us earth scientists were a little stunned to hear him say that. We knew by then what computer models suggested for some future, decades away, but even we thought it was a little premature to be talking about global warming starting in 1988.
It’s interesting. Now that we look back at the graphs over the last 20 years, we discovered he was right.
Saudi Arabia may hold key to oil and dollar link
After a generation on the sidelines, the US dollar has re-emerged as a central issue in the pricing of oil. Since the credit crunch in August, when the dollar has gone down, oil has gone up, by an average ratio of more than 5 to 1. Since August 21, the greenback has declined 4 per cent versus the euro; West Texas Intermediate crude, the global oil benchmark, meanwhile, is up 25 per cent.Why are commodities traders fixated on the dollar? Like other oil market puzzles, the answer may lie in Saudi Arabia.
Regulators seek power over electronic exchanges
Federal commodity regulators asked Congress today to give them greater oversight of electronic exchanges as a way to deter potential price distortion and manipulation, and to protect consumers.
Winter energy supplies come under scrutiny
Leading energy users met officials from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform yesterday to discuss supplies for the coming winter. The meeting took place as seven of Britain’s sixteen nuclear reactors were out of action, raising concerns that energy supply could be tight again this winter.Two years ago many heavy energy users, including ceramic tile makers and chemical plants, were forced to stop production for short spells after threefold increases in the price of gas.
Albania faces deepening energy crisis
The energy situation in Albania is worsening, despite the recent rains and snowfalls. There is no substantial increase of the levels in main accumulations, while the consumption of electric power surged due to low temperatures, triggering prolonged restrictions.
Nepal: Petro Price Hike Sparks Protests
Kathmandu witnessed street protest marches today after the government raised the price of fuel on Wednesday to beat a shortage and reduce losses at the state-run Nepal Oil Corporation, the sole importer of petroleum products in the country.
Price hike fails to normalize fuel supply in Nepal
Despite claims by Nepali government officials to normalize supply of petroleum products after raising the fuel price Thursday, very few pump owners in capital Kathmandu dared open their pumps fearing vandalism and protest.
Saudi SABIC Sees '08 Rise in Chemical Prices
SABIC buys ethane gas from state-owned Saudi Aramco at a fixed price, while many other chemical producers, such as Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp., rely for feedstock on naphtha, which is linked to oil prices.
China grants BP venture fuel storage permit
The move is part of Beijing's ongoing efforts to free up its tightly state-oil-major dominated sector in line with its commitment when it joined the World Trade Organization at the end of 2001.
Jeremy Leggett: Surrendering our future
Our common enemy is global warming, and it is already at our gates. But while our German allies are turning out the renewable energy equivalents of Messerschmitts by the factory-load, Britain is again slow to spring into action. Worse, as we learned yesterday, officials responsible for UK mobilisation have told the prime minister it is impossible for us to build modern-day Spitfires in any number. We should instead oppose European targets set recently for such mobilisation and join other laggards in order to persuade the Germans to scale back their own efforts.
Global Warming and the Politics of the California Wildfires
To cast doubt on the scientists' warnings -- and perhaps fill space -- Buchanan lists examples in history of dire predictions that didn't come true, ignoring those that did. He also tries to equate the squishy prophecies of social science with the findings of hard science, now aided by sophisticated computer modeling.And he has found a helpful scientist, the contrarian Dr. William Gray. A meteorologist at Colorado State University, Gray holds that human-caused global warming is "a hoax." Gray has yet to publish his theory in a peer-reviewed journal -- where fellow scientists could tear it apart -- but he gets a lot of media attention, as you can imagine.
Climate expert says drought, flooding threaten Texas
James Hansen, in Houston to speak before the Progressive Forum on Wednesday night, said predictions made two decades ago about the effects of a warming world are now beginning to come true."Texas is in the line of fire for double-barreled climate impacts," said Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "What we said in the 1980s, and is beginning to come true now, is that both ends of the hydrological cycle get intensified by global warming."
Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his climate change evangelism, Al Gore is apparently considering an invitation from a prominent environmental group to engage in civil disobedience against the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Use these four principles for global warming bill
By taking a smart approach to global warming, we can reduce global warming emissions while curbing our dependence on fossil fuels and creating new economic opportunities for America. And while addressing global warming will cost money, the cost of inaction is greater: rising seas that threaten our coastal cities, more frequent droughts, more intense hurricanes, and a host of threats to public health and well-being.
The Peak Oil Crisis: A Message from Houston
The most ominous development for countries such as the U.S., which must import most of its oil, is the emerging concept of “peak exports” which was discussed by several speakers. Peak exports simply means that oil-producing countries are using more and more oil at home – leaving less to sell abroad. Moreover, sentiment is starting to develop in many nations that they must save some oil for future generations, not just sell it to the foreign devils as quickly as possible.This clearly means that major oil importers will face a shortfall in their ability to obtain oil many months or years sooner than they had been anticipating. The fall in the amount of oil available for purchase is likely to drop much more quickly than declines in production. When world oil exports fall, if they have not started doing so already, effects are likely to sharp and painful.
Global over-population is the real issue
How the hell can we witter on about tackling global warming, and reducing consumption, when we are continuing to add so relentlessly to the number of consumers? The answer is politics, and political cowardice.
One fact appears clear: no-one really knows what's happening.
Though an oil price that would cause such a reaction would have to be somewhat higher than current levels, at some point it will move high enough to cancel out the cheap labour benefits of many low-cost production bases. This is increasingly true for large, bulky goods. A colleague believes that in the coming years, local manufacturing will make a come back, thanks to rising oil prices. In his view, critical goods such as electricity turbines will still be imported. But the price may be higher than we were expecting. And fridges, TVs and shoes are not likely to be imported.
Governments look at oil money and drool
The oil industry is under assault globally by nations and even provinces that want companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron to cough up more royalties they can use to address issues like poverty and education.
Iraq oil flows to Turkey despite threats, attacks
Oil keeps flowing from Iraq to Turkey through a pipeline skirting Iraq’s Kurdish region despite threats to infrastructure from Kurdish rebels and insurgent sabotage attacks further south, an oil shipper said on Thursday.
Charges may follow BP settlement
A federal grand jury is scheduled to meet today to hear testimony in the case. The government has alleged in previous court documents that the traders tried to manipulate the price of propane flowing through a pipeline from Mont Belvieu, in Chambers County, to markets in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in 2004. Indictments could be issued today as well, the sources said.
ConocoPhillips CEO: To Begin Arbitration with Venezuela in 'Next Weeks'
ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Jim Mulva said Wednesday the energy company will probably file for arbitration in the next weeks over assets it formerly owned in Venezuela.
Shell Posts 16 Percent Gain in 3Q Profit
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Thursday that third-quarter net profit rose 16 percent despite a drop in production, but it warned that the underlying performance of its refining operations was weaker than it appeared.
Organic air-freight food to be stripped of status
Three-quarters of the organic food flown in to Britain from overseas could be stripped of its valued status, as part of a plan to cut carbon emissions by eliminating air-freighted food from supermarket shelves.
World ministers set for serious environment talks: UN official
Ministers and officials from 40 nations who met in Indonesia this week are prepared to launch talks on a post-2012 climate change regime this year, a UN official said Thursday.
1200 days to peak oil (podcast)
There are only 1200 days to go until global oil production reaches its all-time peak, according to the editor of the Petroleum Review. Worse, says Chris Skrebowski, the chances are the crisis will break even sooner.
Peak oil meeting mostly discouraging (podcast)
John Kingston, director of oil, attended the ASPO meeting in Houston and reports on the theories of peak oil and the timeliness of the meeting in regards to high crude oil prices.
Brent crude price soars to record high above 86 dollars
The price of Brent crude oil struck an historic peak of 86.28 dollars per barrel in trading here Thursday on renewed concerns over tight global energy supplies.New York crude also surged as Turkey vowed to "purge" Kurdish rebels in the northern region of oil-rich Iraq, and following news that US energy stockpiles fell sharply last week.
Death toll in Gulf oil rig accident rises to 18
At least 18 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the state-owned oil company said Wednesday. Seven workers were still missing. Rescuers have pulled 61 oil workers to safety from storm-tossed waters but have yet to control the oil leak, Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a news release.
Nigeria to Revise Foreign Company Oil Deals
Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, is looking to renegotiate several contracts with foreign oil companies, senior Nigerian oil officials said Wednesday, in a move to boost the government's share of oil revenues.The planned changes will make it harder for foreign firms to pocket energy profits and to book crucial crude oil reserves in the West African nation.
Norway's StatoilHydro clinches Russian gas field deal
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Norway's StatoilHydro had won the right to join in developing the vast Shtokman gas field, ending long uncertainty over one of the world's largest untapped deposits.
Climate change a top US election theme, Gore says in Austria
Climate change will be a top theme of the American election campaign, overcoming partisan divides, former US vice president Al Gore said in Vienna Wednesday, according to Austria's chancellor.
US Senate tackles new global warming plan
Shaking off years of inaction, US senators vowed Wednesday to make the United States a world leader on climate change, at a public hearing on a new plan for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change will hurt NM water supply
Researchers at New Mexico's two largest universities are painting a grim picture of New Mexico's economic and agricultural future with predictions that climate change will mean less water in the Rio Grande watershed.
White House chided for editing testimony
Two chairmen of key committees in the House and Senate on Wednesday criticized the White House for editing testimony from a government expert about the health impacts of global warming and demanded documents involving the testimony he provided to Congress.
Hello...
I have been lurking for a couple years, rarely post but read several hours a day...
I am working on a community-preparedness-score web application. Think "walk score" but for post peak survival.
Here are some of my underlying thoughts / assumptions
1) While I enjoy reading Kunstler, I disagree with his premise, "the suburbs will be abandoned". While I appreciate that generally speaking the suburbs currently have serious problems, I don't think giving up on them entirely is an option. Most of the suburbs will have to be salvaged.
2) Personal preparation is of limited use, community preparation should be the goal.
For example, growing my own food isn't going to be very useful if my neighbors are stealing it faster than I can grow it. If at least some of my neighbors aren't on-board, I am going to have serious problems.
3) Specialization is a better way to live than self sufficiency - I don't want to grow my own food AND make my own clothes AND build my own shelter. I would rather specialize in a few skills and trade with my neighbors. I don't want to be a frontiersman
So back to the web application...
Imagine you go to the site (maybe it could be on the oildrum?) and take a survey.
First - the survey asks is what your zip code is. This will be important for later
Second - questions about basic survival: Do you have a well, do you have a way to clean water, do you have top soil to grow a little food, can you raise rabbits etc...
Third - questions about what skills you have to offer, what tools you would be willing to share, how do you like to be paid for services? etc...
Fourth - ??
Fifth - ??
After you have answered the survey, you will get a personal score and be prompt to create an account
If you create an account, you will then be given a community score and will have access to a community inventory of skills, assets etc.
So for example, once you went through the process, you might know who within X miles of your home can make shoes, who has well water, who knows how to kill/prepare a chicken, who has a large stew pot etc...
The challenge is knowing what questions to ask, how to score the results and know where to draw the line on being too invasive.
I think this sort of application is what we really need to kickstart preparations.
If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them... I am specifically interested in knowing what criteria you think I should collect and how items should be weighted.
thanks...
There is a big difference between what we want to do, and what we can do. In some circles, I am considered an optimist regarding Alan Drake's proposal. From my August, 2006 "Net Exports Revisited" article:
http://www.energybulletin.net/19420.html
I caught the latter part of ‘Planet in Peril” on CNN last night. I thought of Alan as the show ended with a commercial. It was well done. If you didn’t see it…a group of animated gas cans are walking around looking woefully at traffic on the highway and seem to have no where to go as they wonder around, eventually they stumble upon a railroad track, just then a train passes by as the cans are lined up near the track. The wind from the train causes the spouts to flow in the direction of the wind and the cans lean with the wind. Then the caption “The future of transportation” or something like that…
Maybe you need to read TOD daily to get it…:-)
That's a Norfolk Southern ad. It's been running a lot.
You can watch it online here.
From an energy efficiency point of view, it would help if there were shared walls with the neighbors - i.e. something like an apartment building instead of little houses on individual little lots.
100 sq ft/person - when I was in grad school I had a bedroom about that size. In order to squeeze into something that tight, you would almost want shared bathrooms on each floor - much like a dormitory.
When I moved in with my girlfriend, we had to reduce the amount of stuff that we had by quite a bit. The hardest stuff for me to get rid of were books and papers - the rest of it, not so hard.
Ahh...books and papers. My basement stills holds mine, 20 years later. Y'a never know when you might need some notes on group theory (of the symmetry kind, not the social sciences).
As long as all building feedstock comes from salvage.
I still think the engine of the train must have multiple
on train energy sources.
Say-steam to make electricity.
Arkansaw of Samuel L Clemens
I still think the engine of the train must have multiple
on train energy sources.
Why? Such a demand would add weight.
As to the frailty of todays housing.
I built my own loghouse of roughly 4500 sq ft (under roof). I had also helped some spec. builders in the past and helped others make additons(garages,etc) to their houses. I finished basements in my own homes.
I did plumbing,dirwork,poured foundations,did all the electrical work,and so on and on....
So when my son purchased a rather new 2 story McMansion after helping him look at newer homes for a very long time...I was very dismayed over the absolutely shoddy building practices and the materials used.
Houses built in the years prior to the mid 80s were usually of pretty decent construction...Today there is no plywood used in the framing and little used elsewhere...its all chipboard(OSB by name). With this flimsy sheating a layer of Tyvex housewrap is thrown on and and rest of the walls are incredibly cheap and junky 2x4s. Everything is built and then 'hidden' behind a facade. Many of the crawl spaces have drainage problems and contain large amounts of moisture. The duct work is abysmal as is the shoddeniness of everything else. Roof included.
Yes they will fall apart rapidly. The concrete buckles. The lawn is subsoil. The fasteners are air driven and do not perform well. You see no screw fasteners in these houses.
The wifes seem to be the ones deciding on what to buy and all they see is vistages of drywall and cheap cookie cutter finish products. No real quality but with the laminate flooring , which is really a picture of wood or stone printed on a very small substrate of plastic..they think they have captured the essence of real quality. They are completely wrong and no nothing of construction.
Its just 'uuuuooooooo don't those cabinets look good? and that metal prefab fireplace?' ..which can't and couldn't burn real wood..they are only appropiate for propane fed phony gas logs.
Yes it will disappear fast. And it deserves to.
airdale
Agreed. My wife tells me the quickest way to gauge the quality of a house is to look at the amount of overhang on the eaves. Builders wishing to cut corners invariably build eaves with the most modest amount of overhang.
You, my good man, need to sit and watch TLC's Flip This House so you get up to speed on how its supposed to be done :-) I don't do TV but mom watches this show religiously. It doesn't strike her as the least bit ironic to sit in a WWI vintage brick prairie foursquare that might sell for 10% of the price of one of the "flipped" homes and watch that show, but it makes me smile every time I hear the announcer's prattle when I pass by the sewing room.
A period staying with my parents recently got me hooked on this show - it is a train wreck...
the first few episodes were improbably successful... but recently more and more are just shocking - watching these idiots lose their shirts on flips that will NEVER HAPPEN...
--
All these memories will be lost in time
like tears in rain
Dear Airdale,
How right you are! My father would have loved your loghouse. A really well-built loghouse can last for centuries. You've made a wise choice.
I too have done a lot of the building stuff you mentioned. I've now got the tools and ability to build a house if I had too.
Most new houses seem to sell because the kitchen and the bathroom look nice. This apparently appeals to women. One is often given the advice to bake some fresh bread when a potential buyer is coming to look the place over, or install a large, flat-screen television, or a very fancy refridgerator in the kitchen, that people would 'aspire' to own. Selling property is often about selling a perception or an idea.
It's a shame we don't produce and value quality as much as we used to. Of course this would slow things down too much, but maybe we need to slow things down a bit?
I bought a second-hand McIntosh 275 valve amplifier which is almost thirty years old. It's really, really, heavy. It's American quality and engineering. The circuit design is fifty years old at least and the sound is absolutely fabulous. Most people are simply awstruck when they hear the music it makes. It blows most modern amps away.
So maybe we haven't really been 'progressing' as much as we thought. Maybe we've been buying quantity and not quality and wasting vast ammounts of energy and other resources in the process.
Peak amplifier?
Amplifiers that would turn up to eleven, obviously. I saw a made for T.V. movie about this particular resource some years ago :-)
What you're remembering is the movie This is Spinal Tap.
Here's a feed of the famous clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d54UU-fPIsY
Amplifiers Schmamplifiers ..... I have some personal-life sorting out to do, but one thing I may end up doing is making bits and pieces for, maybe even the whole things, involving musical instruments. Strictly acoustic.
Amplification is very very young, and according to the Olduvai Theory won't be a part of our lives for much longer. In fact guitars and violins etc may well be back to gut strings not all that far in the future.
As a professional musician(classical guitarist)
my mind wanders to this thought occasionaly.
So I always have at least a couple years worth of
modern nylon strings at hand.
It is not just houses or hi-fi equipment -- EVERYTHING is cheap junk these days. "Value Engineering", it's called.
One really has to look hard to find well-made stuff. It does exist, but it takes a lot of effort to find it. Good starting tip: skip Sprawl-Mart.
It isn't just your McIntosh amp or old houses - for lots of things, well-maintained used goods will often be the better buy compared to brand-new value engineered crap.
One thing I admire greatly about traditional (pre-industrial) Japanese culture, or the Shakers for that matter, is the antithesis of our "clutter-junk" culture. Have just a few, supurbly crafted things, and keep them out of the way when not in use.
I always regretted getting rid of my old SAE amp. While not a tube amp, it was stone reliable and American made. Its' replacement, a Sanyo freon cooled unit, died after five years.
I'm sure some EE guys will jump on and explain all the ways why ICs are so much of an improvement on the old vacuum tubes. I have absolutely no doubt that they are a great improvement for the manufacturers.
The thing is, though, is that you could actually REPAIR the old vacuum tube equipment. If you were handy with a soldering gun and knew a little bit about basic electronics, you could even order a kit and build it yourself (which even I have done). Anything you build yourself you should be able to repair yourself (which even I have done), and keep running for as long as spare parts are available (a lifetime, if you stockpile them).
Now, if an electronic device goes on the blink, it usually goes in the trash and a replacement is bought. It is getting increasingly difficult to find anyone that can repair anything anymore -- especially for less than the cost of buying a brand new replacement.
"Progress"
Nothing to repairing electronic stuff designed to be repaired. Much of the consumer stuff is specifically designed with encapsulated components so that it can not be repaired and whole modules have to be replaced, and this leads to total replacement.
so in other words, what we are doing is taking concentrated resources and dispersing them. mostly in the landfill. not unrelated to the discussion about phosphate on here a few days ago.
I bought a second-hand McIntosh 275 valve amplifier which is almost thirty years old. It's really, really, heavy
Amp Archecture.
The heavyness is the amp. The Mac passed the signal thru the amp ONCE to get it's power, modern (TEAC and since) pump the signal thru multiple times to get the same power out of it. Feedback . Macs Were WAY better. Does it have tubes?
The british refer to vacumn tubes as valves.
Tubes I have read seem to produce more fidelity..which was once what everyone was looking for.
I also heard or read that vinyl records produce more authentic fidelity than CDs or mag tape or whatever else(Ipods?)..and I have a huge number of Bluegrass records and well ..all that I ever brought thru the years..and do have several turntables.
Its supposed to reproduce the various instruments frequencies better.
So perhaps the past was better in many products and cheap dumbed down manufactured products are not that good.
I used to work on a lot of discrete board products. Yet I do like the ability to have a complete morse code keyer on a chip..and just build the rest myself, like I did. A Curtis chip it was.
I do also like the huge number of functions on my Kenwood hf rig..vs the old Yaseu FT101 I used to have way back where you had to manually load the finals then resonate the load to the output..so on.
Yet the Kenwood weighs a ton..and its of very good quality..yet its mhhh maybe 10 to 15 years since they came out with this model.
airdale
Ahh the good ole analog vs digital debate....
The problem with early CD's was the filtering and converters.
Plus records/tapes have that high fidelity...
hisssssssssssssssssssssss........and crackle/pop.
:)
I'm sorry, but Vacuum Tube amplifiers simply do not produce better 'fidelity' than modern amplifiers. In fact, the accuracy and range of a tube amplifier is significantly less than a comparable modern, transistor amplifier.
The only advantage that tube amplifiers have over modern amplifiers is that when they are overdriven they produce distortion that is 'warm' and 'pleasant'. The distortion produced by modern amplifiers is quite unpleasant by comparison.
All distortion is bad however. Distortion represents a failure of the system to accurately reproduce the sound that was recorded. The solution is not to switch to a different type of amp, but to get an amp that has enough power to create the desired volume without distorting.
Of course, few people seem to notice distortion anyway, so your mileage may vary, but I like my sound systems to produce sounds as close to the source material as possible, that way, if a particular CD sounds terrible, I can blame it on the band or on their sound engineer and not on an antiquated amplifier.
Also, regarding the weight of amplifiers, I have noticed that the weight of a given amplifier is not so much a function of the actual amplifiers contained within, or even of the heat-sinks attached to those amplifiers, but of the power supply (mainly the transformer) for the amp. If the power supply is on the left side of the case, the left side will weigh twice as much as the right.
However, Although the quality of the sound produced by the modern amplifier may be substantially better than the tube amplifier, I expect the tube amplifier would last a lot longer than its modern brother. The modern consumer equipment just isn't built with a long service life in mind.
I have gone though quite enough electronics to learn this lesson very well: The word consume isn't in the phrase 'consumer electronics' by accident.
Pickyreader said:
"but I like my sound systems to produce sounds as close to the source material as possible,"...plus a lot more..
BUT my contention as to the quality of vinyl holds some water as you can read by this link:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm
Which explains that digital sampling leaves out some of the original while the grooves in vinyl contain all the original...granted that dust , etc may have a spoiling effect..note MAY....
As to vacumn tubes...I haven't tried to back up my claim but I suppose that some googles would be informative.
I am an acoustic instrument player,an electronics technician and a ham radio operator. Have been all these for mhhh...about 40 years. Not that this means much but I have seen and experienced the complete span,from vinyl to 8 trks to cds to dvds and so forth. Of course for the best in fidelity one must listen to real instruments played live.
However for me the next best is vinyl with a set of good speakers. Surely Ipods with tinny tiny speakers on headphones must be about as bad as it can get. Given that very expensive headphones might be better but you won't find them on Ipods nor much else today.
What is your background , if I may ask?
airdale-yes vacumn tubes are surely dead but ...
Realistically, this is an issue that has been absolutely beaten to death, although it usually receives poor coverage/understanding.
The link you provided was an excellent example. The author of that piece focused on a single issue and ignored the big contrasting points. Although vinyl records have better accuracy because they don't have to deal with Analog to Digital back to Analog conversion, this is an issue that has been largely fixed because the modern Digital to Analog converters are so good. Also, in order to hear the difference, you would need to have an obscenely expensive sound system to begin with, so this is an issue that is encountered by very few.
The point that the author ignored, is that Compact Discs have a much greater dynamic range than vinyl. This is the difference between the intensity of the greatest possible signal and total silence. For a vinyl record to have a similar range, it would probably need to be about a full inch thick.
The counterpoint to this however, is that modern sound engineers usually give up most of this range to make their albums sound 'louder'. They crank up the volume of the quiet parts so that their album will sound louder than others owned by the listener. This means that when the band wants to get louder, they don't have anywhere to go.
(Roger Waters used this to great effect on "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking": one has to keep the volume quite high to hear his whispered lyrics, so that when he starts shouting, it really blows your ears off. I don't believe that could be done with vinyl.)
This isn't really related to energy though, so we should take this discussion to email if you want to continue.
As for my background, as I am in my early twenties, so I have no background compared to you, but I did live sound reinforcement for concerts and theatre at a community theater operated by my high school, and have been studying Civil Engineering since then, now on the path to med. school.
My email address is listed on my user page.
In my opinion such a radical realignment of expectations can't be made in a single generation. This might be an eventual outcome due to intractable realities, but it won't come about through any sort of reasoned large-scale planning. My 2¢ anyway. Societal adaptation seems reactionary to me and not a planned process. Forward looking individuals may be able to put themselves at the front of the parade by planning for such an eventuality but society as a whole will be slow to adapt and will fight tooth and nail to maintain old expected ways of life. It will take a lot of pain to force people to move in such a direction and there isn't anywhere near enough yet.
I like the way you think! Will be back with comments after I've had my coffee. Would you mind giving out an email address in case the threads get unwieldy?