There still seem to be lots of NOS tubes around. And I imagine that other factories will ramp up out of necessity. I'm not sure if there's a need to raise prices if you're not buying them wholesale at a higher price.
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No.
They’re just playing.
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There are 3 major tube suppliers, one in russia (electro harmonix- now closed),
I believe this to be wrong. The Shuguang factory in China closed. The New Sensor factory in Russia has not closed. The New Sensor factory instead has no good way to get it's tubes out of Russia and into supply channels.
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Preamp tubes pretty much last forever. Power amp tubes not at all. If your power amp tubes are dying and you don't want to spend excessive prices for new tubes, consider putting the tube amp aside and getting a good solid state power amp until tube prices come back down.
I very much favor the vintage 200 wpc Sumo Andromeda amps, which typically run about $900 on the used market.
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To summarize:
- The main supply issue facing audiophiles is for power tubes - especially the big types for which there is no NOS / vintage alternative in quantity. The situation is especially dire for amps designed around KT120 and up (especially 150, 170).
- The Russian New Sensor factory still running, and can still ship tubes to USA but it's going to be much more costly and possibly via an indirect route (i.e. another country).
- If you want to get a preview of what tube prices are likely to be going forward, go to the Electro Harmonix / New Sensor online store. Listed prices are between 2x and 3x more expensive than they were just a couple months ago. For example, KT120 were ~ $50, and now they're listed at $150. Even the tube resellers accused of "gouging" in the past month were selling well BELOW these new prices.
- Upscale Audio has inventory, but they've halted tube sales as of yesterday (April 14). Other sellers seem to be just about out of the more desirable KT types.
- The big Chinese Shuguang factory was shut down a couple years ago. No word on a replacement factory. No indication China will be able to provide power tubes in scale like they used to, for a long time. JJ itself is way backordered, and many of us would not use JJ power tubes in our amps anyways (bad experiences) - especially JJ tubes from a stressed factory.
- We had a wonderful several (or so) years where New Sensor was producing great quality tubes at cheap prices. I'm grateful for those times. It might not be coming back.
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