NOS Tubes - Ecstasy or Agony
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. |
Quick update - finally got the tubes from Brent. Latest issue was the package got lost in the big storm so it took them weeks to get here. RCA VT-231s. Very sweet sound, with a nice balance of bass and sparkle. Definitely more depth and air then the Shuguang's They have a little hiss but I will give me some time to burn in per Brent's advice. Definitely takes my system up a level. I have a pair of Ken Rad's coming so I am interested in hearing those as well. |
I am so glad to have sold some years ago my headphone tube amplifier...With 50 tubes....A basrgain for the man who bought it.... 😊 I had no problem with the tubes tough...Nor with the amp....But i trashed my 7 headphones in a drawer.... My audio regular system work now optimally and beat them all on all count.... I dream now of a tube amplifier where tubes dont make heat at all and enjoy an indefinite life....Nothing else...I dont want to change tubes and gauge them for longevity and steady working...I hate heat in summer....I dream of an ecstay without agony.... I will bought it if i had money on the spot if this kind of tube amplifier exist... But yes it exist: Berning ZOTL amplifier... I will never upgrade my Sansui AU 7700, it satisfy me on all count tough.... A low cost dream comes true.... My only other dreamed amplifier is this Zotl one, not for an upgrade, i dont need it, but because it is a revolutionary new tech with tubes and probably an upgrade anyway.... I am going to wait for Santa Claus to listen to my wishes before the world end or before my death..... 😁😊😎😉🤐 |
NOS Tubes - Ecstasy or AgonyYes :) @drewh1 We use a lot of 6SN7s in our circuits both in preamps and amps. The Shugang tube is a copy of the Phillips JAN tube made in the late 1970s and early 80s and sounds almost the same. The Shugang factory burned down in August of 2019 so these tubes are becoming scarce. I understand they will be setting up production again though. The JJ tube is pretty decent FWIW. If you like to play with older tube types a tester is a good idea, even if the tubes are coming from a good source like Andy at VTS. Our customers have commented that the Psvane 6SN7s have all the best qualities of the NOS tubes without the weaknesses. That's a pretty serious statement! I've heard the same thing about the Sophia tubes, but at least in our gear, we've only seen them run about 6 months and our gear isn't that hard on 6SN7s- we've seen the Chinese tubes go for years. The 1960s Russian 6SN7s are quite good. The later Sovtek tube looks very similar but is arguably one of the worst 6SN7s IMO. Its rare to see the newer Russian made 6SN7s not show some leakage on the tube tester. So far the best comments we've heard from our customers on NOS 6SN7s have been about the Sylvania metal base Chrome Dome (which dates from WW2), the KenRad and the RCA redbase (which is nearly the same as the CBS Zalytron). |
