I know I'm late to the party.. but "vintage" and NOS tubes? I didn't know what I was missing!

bubucci said:
Any clips to prove this NOS madness ?
Oh wait, Pete Thorn make fantastic video about preamp tubes and my conclusion is they are different but none was better than the others, just slightly different and their gain make most of difference. Put new strings make more difference. Sorry for pissing on Your parade 😀
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No clips, I'm not set up for that. However, I firmly stand with the others that CAN hear the difference. Maybe you can't hear it, but I certainly can. It's all good though, one less person to have to compete with for the vintage/NOS stuff. Also, I'm not one to put much stock into any YouTuber's videos. Admittedly, some are WAY better than others, but at the end of the day everything gets processed and compressed and run through the digital realm. How can you be sure what you're hearing is legit?

Anyway, as with everything in this cyber world we live in.. YMMV. But, in my real world.. I'm a believer.
 
psychodave said:
How long are you leaving the tubes on the tester to warm up? They likely need 10-20 minutes to reach operating temperature. Also, they could be tested on different equipment which will cause changes in testing.

The newer tubes tend to be more grainy and have more high end. This makes the ear believe they are more high gain. You also noticed that NOS brings the tone… this will be the quandary of hunting NOS tubes. They all sound different. Last thing, even bunches of the same tube will sound very different, so make sure you try a bunch otherwise you might end up not liking a specific tube brand only because the one you had was a dud. 😉
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About 5 minutes. Maybe I'm not leaving them on there long enough to reach the max operating temp.

Makes sense on the more grainy and more high end. That was something else I noticed, that they were a lot less harsh sounding than new production tubes. They sounded a lot more evenly balanced across the entire spectrum.
 
LP Freak said:
I can’t hear a difference but I make sure I use NOS tubes in all my amps just in case one of you guys show up to my gig.
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Believe me, I'm not judging anyone. :D I just know what is working for me. That's all I can confidently do.
 
There's no need to pay stupid NOS prices these days. My whole collection consists of used/strong testing EL34s of the brands I mentioned. Sure, some can be dogs and are returned but the overwhelming majority of ANOS tubes test strong and sound killer. Up to this point, going back to 2010 or so I've NEVER had a power tube failure. Only the occasional pre tube.

I also agree with others in that the Chinese foil getter/8th/9th gen sound killer and are in the same tone zone as vintage 12ax7s. Hairier and brighter than most of my Euro vintage pre tubes but can still be had for reasonable prices today.
 
Racerxrated said:
There's no need to pay stupid NOS prices these days. My whole collection consists of used/strong testing EL34s of the brands I mentioned. Sure, some can be dogs and are returned but the overwhelming majority of ANOS tubes test strong and sound killer. Up to this point, going back to 2010 or so I've NEVER had a power tube failure. Only the occasional pre tube.

I also agree with others in that the Chinese foil getter/8th/9th gen sound killer and are in the same tone zone as vintage 12ax7s. Hairier and brighter than most of my Euro vintage pre tubes but can still be had for reasonable prices today.
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Rivera shipped those Chinese 12AX7’s with Siemens EL34’s back in the day. Says something!

Orange uses them too. My BH Terror came with all Chinese pre’s save V1 which was a JJ ECC83.
 
The prewar Yugo Smooth plates are amazing PI tubes, and of course, in the phase inverter position, a tube that’s a bit microphonic makes no difference.
Yugo prewar smooth plate is My favourite driver/ ph inv tube, along with the Telefunken smooth plates.
The Tele’s in the PI are a little brighter, but the Yugo prewar smooths are much more solid and tight in the bass, just need to bump your presence up one notch😉
 
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If I could design the perfect preamp tube, it would be a Tungsram / Mullard hybrid.
The Tungsram is a very tight tube with strong clarity in the top and a tight solid extended bass, but man, the Mullards have such a HUGE wall of thick midrange texture that the Tungsrams lack a touch of. The Tungsrams are a touch ‘hollow’ in the mids.
Still prefer the Tungsrams for that tightness and strong clarity with that bold bass.
I find I can get ‘some’ (Mullard characteristics) when I jack the mids using the Tungsrams, but I cannot get the Tungsram’s personality at all with Mullards with some simple eq adjustments. Mullards lack the tightness and clarity.
In my opinion, the 80s/90’s Beijing (square foil getter) Chinese tubes are ok in a Tighter amp like a Wizard, VHT or perhaps a Mark series IIC+, but overall, I find them fizzy and loose in the bass, especially compared to King Tungsram.
I have over 100 NOS Beijing Square foil getters, and yes, they are certainly WAY BETTER than any JJ or Sovкяаp made these days, in my opinion.
 
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Nigel said:
Rivera shipped those Chinese 12AX7’s with Siemens EL34’s back in the day. Says something!

Orange uses them too. My BH Terror came with all Chinese pre’s save V1 which was a JJ ECC83.
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Yep, I think I have 6 Rivera labeled Siemens 34s and a few Chinese pre from a TBR SL I had about 10 yrs ago.
 
scottosan said:
It makes a difference but how do you quantitate a dollar amount to how much better. I can justify $100+ preamp tubes and $300+ power tubes.
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Totally…I’ve never paid that and won’t. You can still find some decent prices on used but strong vintage tubes. That’s how I’ve built up my stash. Power tubes, no more than 40-60 per tube (sometimes less) and pre no more than 30-40 per. They are fewer these days but the last 4 months I’ve grabbed 22 EL34s for around 320.
 
Racerxrated said:
Totally…I’ve never paid that and won’t. You can still find some decent prices on used but strong vintage tubes. That’s how I’ve built up my stash. Power tubes, no more than 40-60 per tube (sometimes less) and pre no more than 30-40 per. They are fewer these days but the last 4 months I’ve grabbed 22 EL34s for around 320.
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Pre Ukraine, I regularly bought tested 50s-60s Tung Sols for $30 each
 
Racerxrated said:
Totally…I’ve never paid that and won’t.
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Me either. I think these vintage tubes sound great, but like it was said.. The return on investment has to be there too. I feel like I got lucky with the ones that came with the tube tester (RCA's and GE's), but I bought some Telefunkens the other day and paid about $40 each for them. Those were actually what I tried in the Nitro and Bogner first, and those really opened my eyes (ears). Also, like was mentioned earlier in the thread to look for... they were relabels, but definitely the real deal (smooth plate, <> bottoms, big halo getter with indent, etc.) Missed out on another 6 of them last night, I threw in a bid at the end but they went for more than I wanted to spend. The only kicker was that there miight have been a couple of relabeled Mullard or Amperex 12ax7's in the group. I'm still learning about what to look for, but it definitely had the ribs molded in the top of the glass. I just couldn't see how many. LOL
 
I got most of my Mullards for around $50, even got 3 NOS including a square getter MC1 for $100 once.

The holy grail, which I will have at some point, are G.E.C. KT77's. A NOS quad is like $1,800 on eBay right now. Stupid money, but man, they are the voice of God. Ask Bob Pletka, Bob Gjika and David Gilmour...

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Since I grabbed a 67 Plex, I've been reading up on guys getting older Marshalls from 65/66 and finding quads of GEC KT66.....those are like gold for vintage Marshall guys AND HiFi heads.
 
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