Recommendations for a vacum tube tester

Yes I find the Orange pretty good for quickly testing 12AX7s and other small 9 pin preamp tubes. I like that it gives you a reading for both sides of the tube to see if they are well matched or not. And the tester is fairly small and simple to use.

But the Maximatcher is pretty easy to use too. Just set the bias and plate voltage from the chart and then select the tube to see the reading (it does 4 tubes at a time). There are also adapters for other non octal tubes like 300B for the power tube tester as well as octal to 9 pin adapters for 6SN7 and others on the preamp tube tester.

So with Maximatcher you are into about $2k to buy two testers (power and preamp) and a few adapters. With the Orange tester it is $200-$300 if you can find one but no octal preamp tubes and only octal power tubes and maybe not super accurate results.

In 1950 they were $25

My tester was $159 in 1959….

Cheap ones ('emissions' testers) did but a decent (transconductance) tester could cost about $800 back then. That's about $10K in today's dollars- a significant but essential investment for a TV repair shop.

@ieales Awesome!!

I own 5 or 6 Hickok and a Jackson 648. For my own use. I cannot imagine having tube gear and not having a tube tester. FWIW, my go to testers are my 752 and my 539b. Should probably sell the rest and buy more tubes

@oddiofyl or others …my Hickok 600A arrived and It seems to be working as expected.  Numbers vary compared to other testers but it seems very good at determining if a tube is good or bad, it’s strength and how well balanced the triodes test.
 I have a question on what the Mut. Cond. number means that is listed on the tube list chart.  From what i read it is the average of what a new testing tube should test.  Tubes can go higher or lower but no more than 30% lower than that number to be considered good.  Sound right or not?  Thanks

The 600A is a good unit for home use.    You can order "bogey" tubes from Brent Jessee.   They have preamp bogey tubes and power bogey tubes. 

The word "Bogey" is basically a perfect of a 6l6 .    Likewise with a bogey preamp tube, which is a 12v dual triode , I think a 12ax7.   

By verifying your results of the tester against the known value of the tube you have an idea whether it is accurate or not.   

I just used a 12au7 and 6l6 that were tested with a computerized tester to determine whether my readings were good and they.were tight, within 50 Micromhos.    I think that's  close enough for home use.