I don’t mean BETTER. That’s a different conversation. I mean cooler.
An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.
If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.
That’s just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.
I’m biased because I’m building up a small collection, but radios were cooler when they were made of Bakelite.
My modest collection:
Also, I realize that digital tuning is more accurate, but there’s something I find very pleasant about turning a knob and the station suddenly comes in clearly. Just that little “aha” serotonin hit.
Nice!
Been hunting for an old tube state radio ever since I heard one last year - it blew my fucking mind how deep, rich, and punchy FM radio came through on that little thing. I couldn’t believe how good it sounded.
To be honest, I’ve never plugged any of these in and I have no idea if they work. They probably don’t because I was getting them at thrift stores for like $20.
But I do want to get a working one eventually. When I see the working ones on eBay they’re much pricier.
I remember those radios. And I remember the small town radio stations that had shows filled with local happenings and people with local voices providing the information. Not canned shows from a central location.
Not sure where you are, but where I live, college and community radio stations are still old school, and very worth listening to. Most if not all now stream online too, so, they’re around if you’re looking for that hit of the olden times.
Yes, you can still find rural small town radio stations that feature local programming. Collage stations often are desperate for content. But it’s not quite like it was 30+ years ago. I live in the middle of a forest with very low population density. So I can listen to such a radio station, provided the weather is right, I’m in my tractor, and at the end of my driveway in just the right spot. :) They used to broadcast MLB games, but that’s gotten far, far too expensive. (Baseball and radio is meant to go together).
From 8AM to noon they have local programing with the local goings on done live. Then from noon to 4PM it’s pretty much canned music with news and weather, from 4PM to 6PM it’s local programming from the Reservation, (Red Lake Ojibwa). They have some very good programming worth a listen. Then from about 7PM to 8PMish during the school year it’s High School sports. And depending on the day, it can vary between the girls teams and the boys teams. After that, it back to canned programming.
I often wonder about how much longer they can make enough money to keep the station going and staffed.