Calling All Tube Gurus


I know everyone loves to have their tubes come from the same date codes and manufacturers. But just how critical is this?


If you can determine that a tube was made in the same plant, has the same construction and date codes, how critical is it if the tube was made by Siemens and rebranded as an Amperex? Or let’s say the tubes has the same construction but were manufactured within a year or so of each other?


I’ve heard people say that if a manufactures tubes are not up to their standards, THOSE are the tubes they send out to the other manufactures for their branding. Fact or fiction?


Has anyone experimented to see how these variables actually affect their music? I realize everyone has their own tolerance to what is acceptable to them, and that it can also be system dependent, but I am curious to the findings any of you may have.

elrod

Back in the day when tube everything was more common, when a tube went out we would search Dad's tube drawer for one that was the same size and number of pins and replace it.  The biggest concern was trying not to too badly burn your fingers finding which one blew.  Seemed that whatever you dropped in sounded fine. Really just happy to get it working again to keep listening to the music. 

You should contact Brent Jessee at 847-496-4546. He know everything about tubes and is awesome to work with.  Here is his website.

www.audiotubes.com

@elrod 

The good and the bad of using tubes is there a lot variation.  The biggest variables are brand and how much they’ve been used.  If you have a decent system and decent ears, you should be able to hear the differences. Recently I bought some used PS Audio hybrid gear.  The preamp came with PSVANE tubes and two extra sets. When 5 out of the 6 tubes that came with it started making a clicking noise and PSVANE would NOT help, even though they knew they put out a bad batch of tubes, I was forced to start tube rolling a bit sooner than I hoped.  I Bought some Tung Sol’s, some Genalex and some RCA tubes.  All three sets sounded different. One had better bass. One had a better high end and I have found that the RCA Cleartops sounded the best to me.  The reason I told the story was, try to imagine that you had two different brands in each channel or one new tube in the right channel and one well used tube in the left channel. The two channels would not sound the same.

Oh and I will never buy PSVANE tubes ever again!!

All the best.

Hello All!  When it comes to 12AX7s, the NOS Telefunkens can't be beat, unfortuntely that makes them pricey. I was very surprised, pleasantly, when I put one in my Elekit 8600. Victor Kung, the distributor for Elekit, was kind enough to send me one and it is terriffic!  Thanks, Victor!  Happy Listning.