Tubes & Audio Research Corp.

I second the info on the California guy, he told me that he wouldn't sell 8802's (Mullard gold pins) unless I was a previous customer of equiptment. I ask him if Mullard made 7308's and his answer was"sort of". When I ask him to elaborate he said he didn't have time to give history lessons. I bought some Mullard 8802's from Tubeworld. To the subject of tubes from ARC, Steve Huntley is currently doing some mods on a SP 9 MKIII for me and he needed the tubes to adjust the bias to match the tubes. I could have the terminology incorrect but perhaps ARC does the same thing to each unit since there is an adjustment. Thanks to everyone for participating on this site. Richard

Keep them comming.Maybee we can save some others from the California guy.

Man, are you guys trying to scare me off right when I was thinking of going tubular?

If the California guy you guys are speaking of is Kevin at Upscale, I have had excellent results with him. If he refuses to sell to certain people, it may be because the products he carries are low in supply, high in demand, and he feels like he cannot afford to offer much in the way of telephone advise, unless there is a retail sale to make up for the time. I am only guessing about this, but I have bought over $3000.00 worth of NOS tubes in about four telephone calls, and all the tubes were EXACTLY as described and promised. Granted, I did not need much advise, only what he had in stock and how much money he wanted. I have purchased tubes from Ned at Triode, Antique in Arizona, Svetlana (I have an account, direct), New Sensor (account there as well), and from Bruce Berman in New York, Vintage Tube Service (Andy Bowman), Elmira Electric, Salt Lake Instrument and others. I have had NO bad experiences with any of these suppliers. Maybe I am lucky, or perhaps there are other factors that are not being talked about here?