Why Purchase used tubes?

When it came to tubing the EL34's in the power supply of my Aesthetix Io and Callisto, I bought the most premium NOS available to insure maximum possible performance. In my Aesthetix this is justified as I have no intention of switching brands and this equipment cost multiple times my investment in these super premium tubes.

If I bought a used Wolcott Presence stereo amp for the bedroom and wanted great sounding tubes, no way would I shell out for original boxed Mullards. Good used tubes beat the stock to death and at a price I can justify.

To clear up any confusion, Wolcott was my reference amp for many years, it is an EXCELLENT design, both in it's stereo and mono block configurations. My comment about super premium tubes in the Io and Callisto are due to the sensitive nature of both high gain preamp and/or moving coil phono stages. Plus, only two tubes are required rather than 16 in the Wolcott.

A bad tube in a Wolcott and one of the bias lights fails to light and you know to switch it. Tube fails in moving coil phono stage and things could get nasty.

In any case, I don't want it to appear that Wolcott is not worthy because I suggested used Mullards would be a smarter buy than new in box variety. My mono blocks required 16 and at $200.00 each for "NOS in new boxes" Mullards I'm out $3200.00. Used that sound as good cost me $800.00.

Leaves more money for other things, same sound quality on both sets of tubes.

http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/d.pl?audio/faq/joes-tubes.html#6DJ8-2

Per Joe`s tube lore.

My favorites that I picked up on ebay....

amperex 6922 PQ white label, US made (shield, gold pins).

amperex 6DJ8 orange globe logo, Holland. (shield, steel pins).

Both are excellent tubes and matched pairs can be picked up very reasonably.

Don`t be too concerned about them being NOS unless you want to spend more money. If the sellers have mega positive feed back ratings, and until I buy my own tester, I`ll take their word on their test results.

Have fun on the hunt. I certainly did.

Warrenh, looks like you've been spending time reading Joes Tube Lore. If so, remember that his picks are based on HIS equipment. His greatest enthusiasm is reserved for Amperex offerings. In my system, I find that some of Joe's favorite Amperexes appeal to me less than Siemens 6dj8's from the 60's. Before I'd ever blow $560 on a pair of tubes, I'd be sure I liked the "house" sound. You can pick up Orange Globe Amperex 6DJ8's (assuming you can use 6dj8's) for a song compared to the most coveted Amperexes. I agree with Joe on those tubes, I think they're great. As to the price of pinchwaist d-getters, "fair" doesn't mean anything, we live in a free market economy. There's a very finite quantity of a highly coveted commodity and if people will pay the asking price, it's unrealistic to expect altruistic pricing. It's all a matter of perspective on the worth I suppose. To me, I don't think the difference between the "best" tube and close contenders is worth hundreds of dollars per tube. Others obviously feel differently.

My experience:
Bought new 6CA7 power tubz directly from ebay seller new matched quads turned out $<8/piece over 3 yrs ago.
Often run amps 24hrs during weekends and once-in-a-while check the bias...
Still hasn't change a notch!
Still noise-free!
Still have extra set for the amp... How's that?

Warren,

No guarantee, thus buy from reputable sellers. NOS can test new but can be used. Also, tubes I believe don't have a linear curve when it comes to life span. More like dropping off a table.

I buy used to try out tubes to see how they sound in my system. The ones I like, then I buy NOS. It makes no sense to pay hundreds on NOS tubes that end up not sounding good in your system.

Matty