Tube question

I am not a tube expert by any means but I do think that for the money spent the SED el34 are a hellavu good tube.Many other very good new production tubes out there..Sure the NOS Mullard/Telefunkens tubes are great,but what did they cost when new..You really need to campare the cost vs cost on all accounts.Look at the cost of new autos today..Are they better or worse??? Good question! For me its a little of both.Whatever works.Not all Nos tubes work best in all situations..Its all a matter of what works for you and how deep your pockets are and if you willing to drop the extra $$$ in the Big Black Hole!

i think it is more of the case of the "new tube sound", which is very resolving and much closer to solid state. circuits are designed today not to be tube sensitive so that it almost doesn't matter what tube you use.

the tube is less important than the circuit. the circuit compensates for the current stock of tubes.

tube gear sounds very different today than irt did 30 years ago, regardless of ehat tubes you use.

Warrenh, if you'll head over to www.vintagetubeservices.com you'll find page after page of historical insights ( & photos) offering glimpses into the manufacturing processes of bygone times. Modern tube manufacturers have sales ONLY to the musical instrument and audio market, they do not have the support of military, television, and radio markets that endowed manufacturers of the past with much greater resources. Yes, the Russians & Chinese are filling a market void, but to reach the heights of manufacturing prowess greats of the past achieved would require much greater investment in R&D, facilities, and worker training. The current size of the tube market doesn't make that greater investment a wise decision from a managerial perspective. If you were to quadruple your investment in manufacturing, you'd have to recoup that in greater sales volume or you're out of business.

EAT manufacturers audiophile tubes in the EC.
Very expensive but sounds as good as it gets...

D Visser

Right now the current Shuguang KT88 and 12AX7 are on par with the legends of audio.

But, as has been mentioned, in the past, when the military and commercial (telecommunications, radio/tv, computers) electronics industries relied on vacuum tubes as their lifeblood, the importance of building the best tubes possible was light years away from a niche industry that supplies guitarists (mostly) and audiophiles (not many of us).