bananaladonpcp":rv118sgj said:
Svetlana sold the company and started making really cheap tubes that are absolute crap. Stay away. Winged =C= tubes were made in a different factory and are still being made. The new ones dont say svetlana on them anymore (Im sure they might still have some inventory that does) just the Winged =C= logo and the tube type...
As for the ruby tubes.... What is all the hate coming from with these? You guys do realize that they are one of the ONLY companies that offer an actual warranty on their tubes? Sure they re-brand tubes but they just don't re-brand anything.... They test the shit out of them to make sure they meet the high quality they are going for. They have a really high rejection rate and only go for high quality tubes.... Re-branding doesn't make them bad.... I have had DOA tubes and tubes that have failed withing a few days or weeks from Winged =C=, Electro-harmonix, JJ, Sovtek, and Tung-sol, and been told by all of them that I am out of luck but NEVER once have i received a bad tube from Ruby. I have AB'd them with a good pair of winged =C='s and they held their own against them. The differences were very small (though i do have to say the winged =C='s sounded better) but for the price difference it's not nearly that big of a jump in sound. Just my 2 cents on the topic...
-Alex
Who's hatin on Ruby, Alex? I am sure everyone has their tube failure story and favorite tube, whether it be on price, availability, reputation, reliability. The fact that they will replace a tube with no questions asked is amazing though, as half the people on this board wouldn't know how to bias an amp to save their life.
My 2 cents is this though....I am not going to re-tube a $600 amp with $200 worth of power tubes. If shit blows up, who cares? Fix the amp, toss the fucker in the bin, get another. Now, I am going to tube a $3000 amp with the best, most reliable EL34 out there, and those are SED Winged C's, from a reputable source.
And, I am talking purely about EL34's right now too, and the Winged C. I don't know what amps you are running, but if an amp is throwing 500-550 plate volts, most 34's cannot handle the screen voltages (for very long anyway) and will screen out. SED's are the only one I would trust here. Ruby might replace a tube, but they aren't going to pay your repair bill.
As far as 6L6's go, the only amps I own with 6L6 tubes are Mesa's. And, I like the Mesa, relabeled JJ's just fine. Just like Ruby, I know they are going to be checked and rechecked and burnt in OK and matched, somewhat. Amps running 6L6 tubes aren't putting out near the plate voltages that near the limit of that family of tubes.
Anyway, there's my tube rant. And, nothing personal against Ruby. It's all about who's running the show and what gets past them and reputation. A good example, take a look at Peter Diezel. He pays very close attention to the tube market, reliability of that tube and the capability of those testing and marketing those tubes. Then, we he gets them, he burns them in some more, culls all the crap and ends up with about a 10th of what he started with. I am sure if you asked Mike Soldano, Rick St. Pierre, Randall Smith or any amp builder, they are going to be doing the same thing. These guys also have to keep cost down and try to strike some balance between price, reliability and cost of repairs for a failure. I asked one of them why they want to send me a $3000 amp with JJ's in it. The answer was, well, I know you are going to change them out anyway. Why drive the price up?
Steve