New 12AX7s from Audio Research

The new 12ax7 tubes from ARC are in and sounding good.

ARCs new 12ax7 tubes are "West German".

Does that infer Telefunken or could they be from some other W. German maker?

That could CONNOTE, "manufactured by Siemens."

Are these ARC tubes "new production" or NOS, (new, old stock?). I wasn't aware of any new production tubes coming out of West Germany? Maybe there is a new plant there.

If they are NOS, could be Telefunken, Siemens or Amperex.

Glad they sound good and you like them.

ARCs website says they avoid NOS for various reasons.

The rep I dealt with (Calvin) indicated a new West German supplier, that's all. I did not question further in that they know a lot more about tubes than I do.

They were actually out of 12AX7s when I first called and in process of onboarding tubes from the new supplier. My tubes shipped about two weeks later.

5 tubes cost $40 and one $55, which I did not expect. The $55 tube apparently measured better in some way. I did not receive install instructions , but found a placement combo with the more expensive tube in the phono stage that resulted in low noise levels similar to what I recall when the unit was new.

ARC warrants their tubes for 90 days under the basis that most issues with new tubes will make themselves known sooner rather than later.

I am satisfied, but $250+ to retube a pre-amp ain't pocket change. THe thing does sound really good though!

The $55 dollar tube is the low noise tube and should go in v4 in the sp16 for a quiter phono stage. I just received these west germany tubes too and they sound great, very transparent. The sp16 sounds warmer to me with these tubes. They are worth the money and should last 3 to 4 thousand hours, to me thats 4 to 5 years depending on listening habits.