[Professional Engineer]

One problem would be finding the needed vacuum tubes...maybe someone has an old console TV that could be raided?

Just a couple of months ago, I gutted an old console TV. I wanted the cabinet, so chucked the guts.

Durn, If I'd only known.

[RightWhale]

Oh, no. Tubes can be replaced, some of them, from Russia and China, but tube sockets, oh! the humanity!

[Charles Martel]

Just a couple of months ago, I gutted an old console TV. I wanted the cabinet, so chucked the guts.

Durn, If I'd only known.

I've done the same, only to regret it later. Turns out the guys who haunt the "audiophile" web forums often build their own amplifiers and such. Some tubes bring amazing amounts of money from that crowd, as they are in search of "pedigreed" tubes (I'm not making this up). Lots of the newer production vacuum tubes are of Russian or Chinese origin (big surprise there), so American and British tube brands can really be worth $$$.

Time to start scouring the thrift stores and pawnshops again. :-)