NOS tubes

cerecords"One thing is certain. Most mass produced items today are made a cheaply as possible..."

That is not certain at all it sounds like you shop only at your American WalMart store.

Don't forget: The Military used to use tubes in its field equipment. You don't use cheap stuff in this application. The 6H30 DR "super tubes", touted by Balanced Audio Technology, were made for Russian fighter jets.

I think everyone who uses tubes should send a note to Western Electric, who is currently building a production facility in Georgia, and express their desire for their favorite tubes (I've already done this). Who knows, maybe they will build tubes, other than just 300Bs, with super-high quality.

Nobody can match the construction quality of the 1950  tubes e.g. Amperex.Todays tubes don't come close.Jump on nos Amperex from 1950s.

dweller
Don’t forget: The Military used to use tubes in its field equipment. You don’t use cheap stuff in this application. The 6H30 DR "super tubes", touted by Balanced Audio Technology, were made for Russian fighter jets.

>>>>The US used tubes in its commercial and military aircraft radios, too. But tubes went the way of the dinosaur a long time ago in the 80s. Now pilots and air traffic controllers have to suffer the sterile sound quality of solid state radios. That’s progress for ya! Tubes were resistant to nuclear bomb EMP but that threat went away 35 years ago. Or did it? 😳
in the 70s I had a direct line to military 12AX7WAs and other goodies through by bud in maintenance at Goddard Space Flight Center. Sweet! I also had a line on regulated power supplies taken from dismantled US Navy communications centers.

@clearthink

That's a little harsh IMO.  Coming at me with insults, especially
when what I said is 100% correct.  The entire purpose of mass production is to cut costs, and today most of what is mass produced by the millions suffers greatly in quality as a result.  Modern manufacturers mostly operate on a much difference set of standards of acceptable quality presented to consumers.  We no longer have tubes being mass produced for military or laboratory equipment especially, so it is very safe to say that what is available to us today can not possibly meet those standards.  As I said before, there are exceptions to everything.