Russian Tube Preamp, No Return, Here I go again

There is only one regular flight to USA from Russia and it’s Moscow - New York.
Do you know that all boarders with EU closed for Russians? The US is open, but how many flight do you expect in this situation? 90% of the flight to any destination are canceled long time ago.  

It’s true than EMS is not cheap, but it’s Express, it was 5 days estimate before covid, now there is NO estimate delivery time to USA, but, in my own experience, anything from 7 days to 30 days is normal, anything from 30 to 60 days is also OK (just bad luck). If it’s more than 60 days then you can only open paypal claim, your seller will never get refund from the shipping company (insurance for full value is impossible), except for shipping cost, but paypal will refund you withing 2 weeks 100%.

Why do you think shipping from Russia to USA must be cheap, do you know USPS international shipping rates?

For example: to ship one LP from USA to Russia cost $25 minimum and it’s not even Express mail (not even priority).

When you pay $40 or even $100 for an amp shipped from Russia to USA with EMS Express it’s fair price! Try to calculate same weight on usps.com for shipping to Russia.


Russia is not China, so your analogy with shipping from China is irrelevant.

chackster

keyword of my hope is: "re-surfaces".

Perhaps, it seems like you are saying: there never was a low priced method from Russia; never close to as low as China was and still is able to accomplish. Past: better time, not better price.

"russian 6N23P-EV in the second cascade"

Knowing this, the preamp maker should have offered spare(s) at a low cost prior to shipping the unit.

If China had 6N23P-EV’s in stock, how much do you guess they would charge to ship a pair?

I shake my head at the low shipping charges they offer.

Seamail shipping cost nothing compared to EMS. But seamail is 3 month minimum.

Airmail post is also cheap, but you must wait longer.

I have no idea why do you compare China and Russia? Almost everything is made in China and almost nothing is made in Russia nowadays.

Chinese products cost nothing and shipping often is free (don’t know how they can make a profit :))

Elliot, you need not fret about the availability or lack of 6N23 tubes in the US or the shipping expense from Russia. I’m sure there are some very suitable substitutes that are readily available here. Moreover you have thousands of hours of listening ahead of you before you even have to solve this non-problem. That’s assuming you like the SQ of the Russian preamp. If you don’t, you’ll be selling it before the tubes wear out.

Did some research for you. 6DJ8/6922 are equivalents. This is a whole family of tubes sold under different alphanumeric designations. You could hardly have a wider choice. Go to Tubes Store for example. Oy.