12au7 tube?

@curiousjim My preamp uses 12au7’s and I’ve tried PSVANE and will never buy them again and would suggest than nobody should buy from them!

Share more. While I have more vintage pairs of 12au7s than I care to recall - including RCAs, GE, Tungsram, the best of Blackburn Mullards, and more ---- and just sent back failed Gold Lyons, I’m currently running PSVANE 12au7, 12at7, factory direct for a year and no problems so far. My local dealer runs all OEM PSVANE made and rebranded for AudioNote, no major reports of failures.

Always curious where folks source their tubes from and how they get packed and shipped. The poorly packed and shipped tubes sure do seem to suffer past few years, fwiw. Always taking photos when I unbox to show packing, boxing, effort.

I am pretty certain that the French tubes, La Radiotechnique (RT) were actually made by this factory which was owned by Philips Europe. Has a unique acid etched code. 

Brent Jessee has the Phillips factory codes and how to read them on his site here:

Mullard, Philips, and Valvo Tube Codes

Phillips owned many of the popular NOS tube manufacturers. Brent says one thing I disagree with, though. That is that you only need to look at the etched codes when the labeling is not readable. Phillips labeled tubes made in one factory with the brand of another factory all the time. You have to look at the etched codes to know where a tube came from and when it was made. They can be hard or impossible to read, though.

@signaforce + 1 on the 60s Brimar, cv4003. Use them in my DAC & much preferred over many of the other usual suspects. I believe the 50s Brimars are even better but good luck finding a pair south of $500.

@audiojan Nice selection of tubes. Enjoy!