Tube question: any sonic difference in 6SN7 vs 6H30 vs 6H80 in the amp's signal position?

@atmasphere, I realize this thread is old, but I think folks who use 6C33C tubes must know that those are going to be around for a long time, since now New Sensor is the only company that has a huge tested supply in the US. The information came from Vivatubes, they’re one of their distributors.

BTW, Soviets made billions of them.

BTW, Soviets made billions of them.

:) a bit of hyperbole, I'm sure.

“:) a bit of hyperbole, I'm sure”

Just a little bit :)

To be honest, considering the humongous amount of lemons, they had to make much more than needed, especially when those were used in the military industry. I lived there for 35 years, and never saw  those in the commercially available devices.

I lived there for 35 years, and never saw  those in the commercially available devices.

Yes. It was made exclusively for the military.

The 6C33C tube was unknown in the west until 1976 when  Viktor Belenko, a russian fighter pilot landed his Mig 25 (Foxbat) at an airport in Hakodate, Japan  to defect to the west.  Little was known about the Mig 25 at that time so it was disassembled for analysis by Japan and the US (interesting note George H.W. Bush was CIA director at the time). The disassembled aircraft was returned to the Russians about two months later in pieces.  Analysts were surprised that vacuum tubes were used in the Mig's avionics systems supposedly because of better thermal tolerance and for EMP hardening.  The 6C33 was used for the power supply for the Mig's radio system and was remarkable for its power handling capabilities.  The first audio amp using this tube was built by a Mr. Dakasue in 1977.  As noted above the Russians made  a ton of these tubes.  Unfortunately quality control was/is an issue and good ones are not that easy to find.