Why are people paying these stupid tube prices?

Yes, it is a prevalent pattern to see folks rolling rare vintage tubes into cheap chi-fi or even cheap Schiit amps, especially headphone gear. Especially 6SN7 and 6922. It always rubbed me the wrong way too. What a waste. On the upside you can buy their tubes after they move onto the next flavor of them month, but a lot of times it will only be a single.

Anyways, the current tube shortage / price crisis really mainly affects power tubes, which don’t have vintage alternatives available in quantity.

Same thing happened to whale oil when it got scarce:

Over a span of 35 years which embraced the Civil War, whale oil ranged from 30 1/2¢ per gallon to $1.92 according to the following prices which are taken from Eaton's book, "Petroleum", 1866:

Another source mentions that the average price from 1845 to 1855 was $1.77 per gallon (Stotz, 1938).

In the war year 1864, the price per 35 gallon barrel was $67.20.  It is not known if this is sperm whale oil or oil from any species.

Sperm whale oil commanded a higher price just like better tubes.
If it's not one thing, it's another.

All the best,
Nonoise
 

facten

2,141 posts

05-25-2022 at 08:45am

TubeDepot isn’t presently selling the TS KT150 - look at the specific page

 

I may be wrong but I don’t think Psvane or Linlai make KT150s

The New Sensor factory owned by fuzz-pedal inventor and marketer extraordinaire Mike Matthews is the only manufacturer, under the Tung Sol label, of KT 150’s. So no, you are not wrong. 

@oddiofyl 

"Maybe if people didn’t buy $200 headphone amps and burn up rare tubes for mediocre sound we wouldn’t have this problem"

I believe Marie Antoinette was of the same opinion when she said...... 

"Let them eat cake."

This sort of arrogant elitism is why many people are disgusted by

audiophiles.

Time for a reality check, buddy. The rest of the world isn't here to serve you.

@mulveling 

"Yes, it is a prevalent pattern to get to see folks rolling rare vintage tubes into cheap chi-fi or even cheap Schiit amps, especially headphone gear. ....... On the upside you can buy their tubes after they move onto the next flavor of them month."

Perhaps it would be best if we just prevented anyone that wasn't part of your elite group from purchasing any tubes at all. That way, the people that deserve all the best in life, like YOU, will keep the best things in life for yourselves.