I have purchased several singles and matched pairs of NOS from Upscale Audio. All have been just as advertised and no DOA's. I personally don't believe there are many, if any suppliers who do the kind of comprehensive testing that Upscale does on the tubes they sell. And no, I am not a paid spokesperson, just a very satisfied customer.
NOS Tubes - Ecstasy or Agony
I have been running tube amps for many years and have built a number of SETs and other tube amps, kit's mostly. My main power tubes have been 2A3's and 300bs and I have used mostly new manufacture tubes including JJ's and EML 300b's (great tube btw). I did use NOS driver tubes and headphone amp tubes. Never really had a problem.
I just transitioned to a Don Sach's 6sn7 based preamp and McCormack SS power amp. The preamp is very nice and sounds great with Shugang tubes. Of course, I wanted to try some NOS tubes, went online and did my research. Now the DS2 is a great preamp, the drawback is it uses 4 6sn7s and so I need to get pairs. Would have love to get my hands on the Dehavilland, uses one tube!
First Pair - I ordered some Sylvania's from TC Tubes. Advertised as 50's vintage, ,when I received them they were marked 60's. Hmmm. So I tried them and they sounded pretty darn good except after a couple hours one of them developed a high pitched hum, like a florescent bulb. So I sent them back.
Second Pair - ordered from Brent Jesse - has a good rep online and a really informative website. Received them and one was dead on arrival, they were also clearly of different construction. So they are going back.
Next will try Andy at Vintage Tubes Services, he also has a solid reputation so hopefully I can get something that works.
I am curious what experiences others have had. Maybe its COVID, or are these dealers just unreliable, or is just 6sn7's? Really thought I could just buy some NOS tubes and experiment, I can't even get two to work.
I don't really want to disparage these dealers but I do think all the claims of testing are maybe overblown.
I just transitioned to a Don Sach's 6sn7 based preamp and McCormack SS power amp. The preamp is very nice and sounds great with Shugang tubes. Of course, I wanted to try some NOS tubes, went online and did my research. Now the DS2 is a great preamp, the drawback is it uses 4 6sn7s and so I need to get pairs. Would have love to get my hands on the Dehavilland, uses one tube!
First Pair - I ordered some Sylvania's from TC Tubes. Advertised as 50's vintage, ,when I received them they were marked 60's. Hmmm. So I tried them and they sounded pretty darn good except after a couple hours one of them developed a high pitched hum, like a florescent bulb. So I sent them back.
Second Pair - ordered from Brent Jesse - has a good rep online and a really informative website. Received them and one was dead on arrival, they were also clearly of different construction. So they are going back.
Next will try Andy at Vintage Tubes Services, he also has a solid reputation so hopefully I can get something that works.
I am curious what experiences others have had. Maybe its COVID, or are these dealers just unreliable, or is just 6sn7's? Really thought I could just buy some NOS tubes and experiment, I can't even get two to work.
I don't really want to disparage these dealers but I do think all the claims of testing are maybe overblown.
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NOS...."New Old Stock", only 3 weeks old since demand has fallen off of late.... "Hey, Lorraine? These boxes aren’t ’aged’ enough to be ’believable’. Can you smudge them up a bit more?" Does anyone truly believe there are stashes of old tubes out there Still? If so....I've got some lake bottom property next to the Brooklyn Bridge to put up an 'old condo' on..... |
asvjerry1 All you have to do is a little searching. Here is a recent auction on ebay. Scroll down so you can see the actual sale of 10,000 to 12,000 tubes. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-Vintage-Vacuum-Tubes-Approximately-10000-to-12000-Radio-amp-Televisi... |
I think NOS tubes are an area where who you're dealing with matters more than anything. My experience has been that tubes matter a lot more in a preamp than an amp. I've had tubes fail in my amps, but I've never experienced a sound quality issue related to a tube in any of my amps. On the other hand, my Modwright LS100 which also uses 6SN7 tubes will not only reveal the characteristics of the sound quality of any given tube, but also noise and/or microphonics. I would say that probably 30% of the tubes I've purchased, including some highly touted new ones, have been microphonic or became microphonic after a short period of time or had unacceptable noise issues. Which goes back to my initial point. Brent Jessee has been my go-to guy. For a few bucks extra he will guarantee his tubes (for 2 years I think?). Whenever I've experienced an issue, he's been great about getting me a replacement, or if he doesn't have one, recommending something different. I've also had good experiences with the ebay sellers I've bought from, but I make sure that they have 100% feedback and a lot of it. I had some issues with a pair of tubes recently and the seller tried a few in his preamp and sent me four to try and told me to keep the two that worked best. I've had other good experiences with ebay sellers helping me make sure I got a good tube(s) that would work well in my preamp. As far as buying a pair of NOS tubes that don't exactly match as far as their markings, that is not unusual, at least in my experience, nor does it concern me. The same tube may have been sold under different brand names. As long as the tubes themselves are the same and tested and matched, it makes no difference to me. |
I buy my tubes through www.thetubestore.com NOS and NNS (new new stock) @mapman I am a marketing genius. Never an issue quality tubes and alway have what I am looking for. Excellent service and fast shipping. |
- 51 posts total