2. amps-preamps
  3. 186016-111109

Why Can't Modern Tube Manufacturers Make a Proper Tube?

Current tube manufacturers, at least the ones I have tried should be utterly ashamed at their ineptness, apathy, ignorance, or whatever it is that makes them seemingly unable to make a tube properly.

And I never knew what I was missing before I tried reclaimed tubes from the 1950's, an era where people build things instead of ruining things.

The present manufactures are said to have the actual machinery to make tubes for which they have examples in hand and schematics on file, but they just can't do it.

Is this a case of Idiocracy? Are people just stupid today? The world and all creation do follow the 2nd rule of thermodynamics so I guess this is the case.

Listening to Black Plate RCA’s and Mullards in my system, even for a short time made it glaringly obvious that modern manufactures are embarrassingly inadequate. There is absolutely no comparison.

Why can't modern tube manufacturers make a proper tube?

1. lack of IQ?

2. Apathy? 

3. Lack of Materials?

4. Lost knowledge? 

 

128x128tonydennison
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,705 posts
 

New Tung Sol efforts are good. Toxic materials used in the last century not used today. Look at the deteriorated quality of home-building now compared to the 50s.

jond's avatar
jond
5,740 posts
 

Noromance nailed it lots of the materials and processes used to make tubes back in the day are illegal now and horrible for the environment. There's no going back for very good reason.

tonydennison's avatar
tonydennison OP
407 posts
 

Luckily I live in a 50's house. Built to last. Made by actual craftsmen that cared.

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,699 posts
 

I heard that they only had enough of some of the original materials for WE 300b to make something like 30,000 pairs.  

Obviously that original 300b recipe is long gone but I wanted to have a spare so I actually bought a spare pair just in case.  

Western Electric has acquired a lot of tooling to make small signal tubes.  I heard that they bought a bunch of the old Ei factory tooling and machinery.   

Hopefully they will be producing quality tubes in the near future.    They will be doing common power tubes.   

I really wish they would produce a 6922 but i think its not on their radar like guitar amp and common power tubes are.  

As for quality , my WE 300b tubes still test like new after a year of use, a lot of use. They sound great , I hope to get a long life out of thsm  

ghdprentice
6,819 posts
 

I guess we use different tubes. I have 50 tubes in my current systems, and have used tubes for decades… although less in number. I got a whistle in a tube a few years ago after several years of use and had on tube that died upon arrival. The rest have performed flawlessly for there entire life or are still in use.

More to discover