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In Reply to: RE: blue LEDs, can we stop them posted by blackwax@mac.com on June 06, 2007 at 22:09:37
They can certainly be over-used, though. Remember that initially blue LED's were scarce/expensive and thus high-tech by definition. A bit over 100 years ago, pure aluminum was difficult to make and as a consequence aluminum was expensive and coveted; even used as jewelry! In its early history, the use of plastic materials, e.g., in car interiors, was a luxury touch.
Blue LED's are now commodities, so they're still proliferating. They will fall out of favor rather quickly, I suspect. I suspect the next big thing will be retro: maybe 6.3 VAC incandescent pilot lamps, or, if they've been obliterated by the environmentally-correct, howabout maybe Nixie tubes or green or blue-green CRT display tubes like the "magic eye" tubes or the DM70 "exclamation point" tube?
That said, I really LIKE the color blue and spectrally pure blues in particular. The blue LED really hits me where I live... especially since the high RI polycarbonate lenses in my glasses have a tendency to produce a really stunning deep-blue/violet aura to blues at the periphery of the lenses!
I like blue LED's enough to have figured out how to use one when I built a second example of Pete Millet's hybrid tube/ss headphone amp for a charity auction several years back. I know that using LED's ain't rocket science, but I still had to learn how to control the current flow through them to make sure I didn't cook the somewhat expensive LED instantly!
This photo of said amp, illuminated with one of those blue-LED pocket 'flashlights' probably isn't really as cool as I think it is, but I like it:
I do definitely agree with the original poster, though, about hokey blue lighting effects (e.g., shining light of any color up through tubes -- heck, tubes make their own light, which is quite nice!).
all the best,
mrh
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