Not sure why the downvotes—there’s been a pretty significant tube shortage for the past couple of years. There are only a few factories that produce them. One closed recently, and another is in Russia where tubes were on the 2022 export ban list. This has caused musicians and audiophiles to hoard tubes, further exacerbating the supply-chain issue.

For those who don’t know, vacuum tubes have a limited lifespan. You can get 5-10 years out of a tube if you only use it occasionally and at low volumes, but if you use them several times a week at higher volumes, they’ll last maybe 2-3 years.

The possibility of tubes becoming unobtainable or prohibitively expensive is very real.