Thermionic Culture

Established in 1998, Thermionic Culture Ltd. was founded with the mission to manufacture, promote, and distribute the all-valve studio equipment designs of Recording Engineer Vic Keary. Their primary objective is to showcase the superiority of thermionic valves (known as vacuum tubes in the U.S.) over solid-state alternatives in audio applications. Valves exhibit less inherent distortion compared to transistors and offer very low noise, resulting in a natural sound, especially when paired with high-quality audio transformers such as those from Sowter. While valves are renowned for their legendary and often musical distortion (as exemplified by The Culture Vulture), we also aim to highlight their clean qualities. Some of our circuits feature unbalanced “single-ended” outputs, delivering an exceptionally open sound. All of their equipment is proudly Made in England to the highest standards, with much of it hand-wired point-to-point in the traditional manner.