The State of Vacuum Tubes for the 21st Century

[van Sinn]

Quite an interesting article with much info on who's who in tube production:

  http://www.vacuumtube.com/faq1.htm

Jeez! Enough info for some nice bedtime reading..

[van Sinn]

Having read the article, I'll advise you all to read the full article, as it covers much ground on what quality tubes are and aren't, including details on sought-after NOS tubes

It also explains why tubes in their glory days were better than what's possible today, which mainly boils down to expences in the manufacturing process, which the market cannot generally pay.

I'm now speculating that some of the reported issues in here with i.e. reissue Mullards may be due to rebranded low quality tubes.
Of course I'm aware many of you did buy from well reputed dealers, but still, in some cases there could be an explanation here.

Further, Randada's postings here in TechFAQ section on NOS tubes, buyers be aware are well worth a read.

[HarleyHexxe]

I read that NOS tubes post some time ago. A lot of that makes sense.

      Fortunately, I am in a position where I can take the rig to the shop and actually try out the prospective NOS tubes before buying them, in my ADA preamps.

        One of the tubes I am very curious about are the military grade 5751 tubes. According to they shop owner, these are supposed to be mil-spec 7025 tubes with a better quality build. We'll see...


                 Harley

[nsabino70]

hi, guys I have a very, very old Phillips ECC83 I pulled out of a radio a few years ago. Although it's punchy and has very smooth highs I think it's shot. After a few minutes of using it the preamp gets pretty noisy and the power never seems to be all there. Well that's just too bad.

Regards,
Ñelson

[HarleyHexxe]

Sinn,

       Very interesting article the VTV report.


          Thank  you for posting it. As I suspected, and for that reason did not purchase it when I found it..... the 7199 tube is nearly extinct.

          I'll have to audition that in person to determine if I have a real one or not.



                            Harley