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Post by Chris on Mar 25, 2018 3:53:59 GMT
What does everyone prefer and why?
Im in the new camp myself.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 7:27:27 GMT
My only experience was a quad of NOS Valvo ECL86 (cryo treated IIRC). I bought from a reputable seller and soon after, my series 300 started playing up. I took it to Maughans for a service and Mr Maugan tested amp and valves. He has sophisticated test equipment and the valves wee failing once fully heated and up to speed. He said this is common with NOS purchases. The sellers don't have the equipment to test the valves properly and so end up selling duff valves that they haven't fully tested.
I ended up with a large loss on the valves and a bill from Maughans, so never again with NOs for me. Maughans did service the amp, source me some new valves and clean the valve pins, so I did get something out of it.
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Post by Chris on Mar 25, 2018 11:42:46 GMT
Sore one. At least it didn't knacker your amp.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 12:32:25 GMT
The thing that really put me off trying more NOS valves was that the seller was a respectable and honest supplier with a good track record. Mr Maughan told me that the sort of rigs needed to test valves properly were few and far between these days. He actually showed me what he used and it was like something out of a vintage sci-fi adventure. I might feel different about pre-amp valves at some stage, but no way I'd ever try power valves again.
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Post by julesd68 on Mar 25, 2018 19:40:15 GMT
I used to be very much a vintage tube guy. My phono stage took a bit of tube-rolling to find the sound that I was after but is now armed with a variety of vintage tubes from 50's, 60's and 70's. I'm extremely happy with them. My preamp however has a quartet of 6SN7 tubes and all the old tubes I tried were pants - syrupy, not especially dynamic and very coloured. The fabled Ken Rad 6SN7 didn't even stay. I was then recommended TAD tubes (thanks jandl100!!  ) and these totally changed my viewpoint of new production tubes. They are everything I look for in a tube - essentially neutral, with a strong dynamic performance with good frequency extension at both ends. Just superb and they are about £25 a tube, an utter bargain. You also get a 6 month guarantee with them. I also tried a TAD GZ34 rectifier for my preamp and whilst good, this was not quite a match for my 1960's Toshiba which has a bit more slam and drive about it. Bought the Tosh very cheaply from Japan and found it infinitely preferable to a Mullard (Dullard). |
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Post by Chris on Mar 26, 2018 6:02:09 GMT
Yeah,I've got the TAD KT88s and they are very good. Well made and a good strong sound. They work well in my amp. I've also got the Full Music 6sn7 which are pretty good but expensive. There wasn't much difference between them and Russian 6sn7 equivalents and the Russian ones are a quarter of the price.
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) and these totally changed my viewpoint of new production tubes.