No more EHX Russian tubes in 2022

Laugh all you want - after rolling tubes through my amps till I was blue in the face, I genuinely preferred the sound of the Genalex Gold Lion and the Gold Pin EH12AX7 to any / every other preamp tube I had tried. I totally get that the gold plating likely does absolutely nothing. But I also get that it is at least reasonable to think that EH and Genalex start with the highest rated tubes for their ‘gold’ designation. I think I may have 6 of each on my shelf - in addition to the ones in my amps right now. I used to buy them for about $20 - $25 a piece. Now sets are hovering around $80 per tube - $250 for a set of 3? $320 for a set of 4????

I cannot believe that the Russian export ban is now permanent. In today’s hyper connected global economy, a nation the size of Russia cannot just step away from the word market indefinitely. There will come a time when zero imports and zero exports will choke their economy out. It may take quite a while, but the optimist in me says ‘this too shall pass’ and fine Russian Vodka, caviar, oil and vacuum tubes will once again litter our US shelves - and the backlog from the previous period of no sales will probably cause prices to drop lower than they were before the import/export clamp down.

I‘m not about to panic and snap up existing dealer stock at 4x markup (remember, tube re-sellers bought current inventory LONG before this sh*t started…) only to see prices return to normal LONG before any of my current inventory of 12AX7s gives up.
 
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i’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner but geez when you are hanging the future of all tube amplification on chinese and russian products with notoriously low quality control, given today’s global tensions and supply chain nightmares, i can’t imagine things improving.

i sure wish an american manufacturer would rise up and produce high quality tubes. you’d imagine someone could stand to make a fortune doing so.
 
PDC said:
Laugh all you want - after rolling tubes through my amps till I was blue in the face, I genuinely preferred the sound of the Genalex Gold Lion and the Gold Pin EH12AX7 to any / every other preamp tube I had tried. I totally get that the gold plating likely does absolutely nothing. But I also get that it is at least reasonable to think that EH and Genalex start with the highest rated tubes for their ‘gold’ designation. I think I may have 6 of each on my shelf - in addition to the ones in my amps right now. I used to buy them for about $20 - $25 a piece. Now sets are hovering around $80 per tube - $250 for a set of 3? $320 for a set of 4????

I cannot believe that the Russian export ban is now permanent. In today’s hyper connected global economy, a nation the size of Russia cannot just step away from the word market indefinitely. There will come a time when zero imports and zero exports will choke their economy out. It may take quite a while, but the optimist in me says ‘this too shall pass’ and fine Russian Vodka, caviar, oil and vacuum tubes will once again litter our US shelves - and the backlog from the previous period of no sales will probably cause prices to drop lower than they were before the import/export clamp down.

I‘m not about to panic and snap up existing dealer stock at 4x markup (remember, tube re-sellers bought current inventory LONG before this sh*t started…) only to see prices return to normal LONG before any of my current inventory of 12AX7s gives up.
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Are gold lion russian made?
 
JJ tubes are made in Slovakia, I bought some spare EL34 & 6V6 from Eurotubes right when Ukraine invasion happened (managed to beat the price hike) - their owner said they expected a big JJ shipment mid March, and continued production feeding their supply. One of the Chinese tube plants shut down & relocated - restart delayed supposedly until 2023. With amp manufacturers scrambling to shift the source of tubes, going to be a rough year or three.
 
Sucks because I’ve played Russian brands for decades. Nothing sounds as good to my ears.

I stocked up on 8 sovteks and 8 Chinese before the price hike. Just bought 8 more sovtek pre’s after the price hike. Why? Because once supplies are gone, they are gone. That’s it.

Since preamp tubes tend to last about 5 years, I’m good now. Power tube wise I should be able to wade the waters and substitute for JJ or similar without losing the desire to play.
 
Thank the maker I can just switch amps when one blows a tube.
I should be good for the rest of these golden years of my life.
By the time I finally leave this mortal coil there will be a lot of amps that need to be re-tubed in my will.
 
The good news is you can now get tubes dirt cheap, shipped directly from the Ukraine (though there's a 99.9% chance they'll come completely shattered).



Too soon?
 
mentoneman said:
i sure wish an american manufacturer would rise up and produce high quality tubes. you’d imagine someone could stand to make a fortune doing so.
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I wish that too. But to be honest, I don't think it's going to happen. Unfortunately.
 
PDC said:
This:

“i sure wish an american manufacturer would rise up and produce high quality tubes. you’d imagine someone could stand to make a fortune doing so.”
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Barriers to entry too great, regulations. I spent some time looking into this a couple years ago with the thought of creating tube company in the US. The regulations make it simply undoable, which I believe is why they’re made in China, Russia and Slovakia. But I didn’t get too deep before giving up, maybe there is a way with some deep pockets and could afford to lose money for a while.
 
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