[dinaudio]

I see many of 6SN7 tubes from Russia sold at less than $5 each. How good/bad are they?

[NagysAudio]

Complete garbage!! Avoid at all costs! The only good 6SN7 tubes are the "JAN" designated ones and made in United States. All other audiophile, Russian, and Chinese tubes are worthless. You can get NOS JAN tubes everywhere and they're not expensive.

[Bill Baker]

If you are looking for a decent tube for a good price, search guitar amp websites as they ussualy sell tubes for much less than tube retailers. The downfall is they have a very limited selection.
 I am not a big fan of the Russian 6SN7 (other than the EH Gold), I think the Shuguang is the best sounding current production 6SN7. At least within a reasonable cost. I have not yet heard the Black Treasure or other pricier tubes.

 I am not saying the Shuguang are better or worse than the JAN tubes and won't get into any debates about what the best tube is.

[JoshK]

Complete garbage!!

In what way?  That statement is pretty worthless without some qualification. 

[NagysAudio]

Complete garbage, that's pretty absolute. There's nothing more to elaborate on. Just like a lot of the things that come out of those 2 countries. Unless you have a source for NOS Russian military tubes, the new mass market production ones are extremely noisy, spec and test poor, and constantly fail prematurely.

[bunnyma357]

I haven't had experience with 6SN7's, but have a lot of NOS Russian tubes (6N1P, 6N23P, 6P3S) and often find in my system and for my tastes they outperform far more expensive American and European NOS tubes and New Production tubes. I have had very good results from tubes from the Voskhod factory  -  it looks like the pictured tubes are from the Novosibirsk factory.

Here is a link to a page that shows which logos are for each factory:

http://www.ominous-valve.com/russtube.html

At the price that the NOS Russian tubes sell for it seems like a no-brainer to try them for yourself and see if you like what you hear.


Jim C

[JoshK]

Complete garbage, that's pretty absolute. There's nothing more to elaborate on.

Complete hyperbole!

[Ericus Rex]

Complete garbage, that's pretty absolute. There's nothing more to elaborate on. Just like a lot of the things that come out of those 2 countries. Unless you have a source for NOS Russian military tubes, the new mass market production ones are extremely noisy, spec and test poor, and constantly fail prematurely.

That looks like a Russian military tube to me   

[Art_Chicago]

Complete garbage, that's pretty absolute. There's nothing more to elaborate on. Just like a lot of the things that come out of those 2 countries. Unless you have a source for NOS Russian military tubes, the new mass market production ones are extremely noisy, spec and test poor, and constantly fail prematurely.

Man, how about some political correctness  In case you did not know, the internet is a world-wide thing, and this is an open site. As for the tubes, I have used Sovtek 6N1P and am using EH 6CG7 now in my Van Alstine t-8+. No failure yet. It probably has to do with Frank's excellent engineering, too.

[Jon L]

I like the Electroharmonix 6SN7 just fine.  I understand the EH gold version just comes with gold-plated tube pins. 

These are builty very robustly and sound quite straight-forward, and depending on where, I have at times preferred them to the likes of KenRad black glass or Sylvania "Bad Boys."



 

[Syrah]

Kant said, "no man's knowledge goes beyond his experience."

I, and others, who comment on what they have actually heard as opposed to sweeping generalizations, love the 6SN7 Black Treasures (which are Chinese) and have compared them to many an American NOS in our systems to our ears...  Pretty unfair to comment on EVERY Russian and Chinese tube unless you've listened to them all, even then it would likely only be in the context of one system.

[Bill Baker]

I like the Electroharmonix 6SN7 just fine.

 Sonically I don't mind the EH 6SN7 but must admit I have not had much luck with them in regard to becoming noisy.

[zybar]

Complete garbage, that's pretty absolute. There's nothing more to elaborate on. Just like a lot of the things that come out of those 2 countries. Unless you have a source for NOS Russian military tubes, the new mass market production ones are extremely noisy, spec and test poor, and constantly fail prematurely.

Complete hyperbole!

Disagree with Nagys???   

Nagys using hyperbole???   

Josh, don't you know that Nagys is the authority and expert on everything he posts on?   

George

[Occam]

Complete garbage, that's pretty absolute. There's nothing more to elaborate on. Just like a lot of the things that come out of those 2 countries. Unless you have a source for NOS Russian military tubes, the new mass market production ones are extremely noisy, spec and test poor, and constantly fail prematurely.

Apparently, the only thing absolute around here is that certainty that you know it all, whether it be tube quality, any and all signal or power cables, solid state amps, whatever.... I admire your certainty, though I really think it ill founded.

I use New Sensor tubes and am quite pleased with them. Their EH 6922 are excellent and pretty much bullet proof, as are their 12ax7lps. Their Mullard and Tung-Sol 'tribute' tubes and are lovely. But I can't speak specifically to their 6SN7s.

I believe both of our families came from Russia, mine a couple of generations prior. Hopefully, your children will loose that reflexive hostility.

FWIW,
Paul

[bunnyma357]

That looks like a Russian military tube to me   

The OTK stamp is supposed to be a Russian military Quality Control stamp - so they should be military stock, but not an upgraded military tube with a suffix code like "E" "EV" or "DR"

Jim C

[Ericus Rex]

I also can't comment on current production 6SN7 from anywhere but I do have experience with new production Genalex KT 66 and 88's.  They are Russian and they are wonderful!

[zmanastronomy]

I use a pair of Russian 6C33Cs and there fantastic and affordable. They where used in the Mig Fighter Jets during the Cold War. Now they're helping to make beautiful music and give me pleasure. Who would've thought ?

[hometheaterdoc]

to answer the original poster's question:  it depends... a lot of the ones you are seeing advertised on ebay, etc. are 80's and 90's versions that can be a bit all over the map as far as measurements are concerned.  If it's important to you to get very tightly matched pairs/quads/octets/etc. then you usually have to buy quite a few of them.  However, that's really no different than diving into the pool of NOS vintages of american or other countries 6SN7 variants.  They can be all over the map measurement wise as well and no guarantees on shelf life for them as well.

Several places did the manufacturing of these Russian tubes depending on vintage. 

As for sound, the late model ones do everything ok, but nothing really stands out.  I can't speak to long term reliability because I've never listened to them for thousands of hours to find out. 

Some of the 60's vintage are very passable sounding.  Clean, good extension in both directions.  They don't romanticize anything.  They're more neutral in character, but do have good soundstaging and a touch of harmonic texture.  The metal base 3 hole variants are probably the best of the Russians that I've tried.  They're harder to come by though and even the ebay "Russian roulette" vendors sell them for $150+ per pair plus shipping from overseas.  I've had good experiences with a couple Russian vendors.  Others are to be avoided at all costs. 

I've been playing with the Russian 6C33C triode tube lately.  I prefer it over every other EL34, 6550, KT88, etc. amp I've tried.... and I've tried hundreds of them over the years.   The bonus is that even though there really isn't a lot of variety as far as manufacturers or vintages having different sonics, if you like the tube, they are really cheap to replace when they are used up.  Right now, they're ~$20 a tube delivered from multiple reliable sources.  I'm in the middle of a custom monoblock amplifier build that will use these as output tubes.  I can't wait to get them up and running. 

Not all Russian tubes are garbage. 

Not all Chinese tubes are garbage.  The Black Treasures are expensive if you buy from the North American distributor.... you at least get well matched tubes buying this way... The Treasures are really quite good. 

Not all American tubes are great.  There are some really crappy ones. 

Probably my favorite 6sn7 tube at the moment is the Sylvania 6SN7W standard base.  It's got the same plate structure as the metal base 6SN7W, but not the inflated price to buy a pair.  The 40's Sylvania VT-231 are quite good as well, but are bass shy.  Not a problem if your speakers don't go that low or you are using a sub... but definitely need to balance everything else out and take their signature into consideration...  I got a really nice pair of them recently for $29.00 plus shipping.  Worth every penny. 

[DARTH AUDIO]

This is the best Russian tube IMHO. But it does cost around $100.. But well worth it. Great soundstage, pressences and body!!

[dinaudio]

Many thanks for your input.
My experience of Russian tubes so far are minimal. I had 6N1P and 60's 6SN7. I tried 6N1P to replace 6N1 (Chinese made), but it did not work out well, not because 6N1P was bad, but because they are not direct exchangeable.
60's 6SN7 was pretty good. It sound better than Sylvania GTA/GTB in my Rogue 99 preamp. However, they had some microphonic noise after a while.

I just ordered NOS 8x6SN7 (80's production from Novosibirsk factory) and 8x6C33C-B from Russia. I only paid $155 with shipping, and I will see how good they are in about 3 weeks.  BAT sells 6C33C-B at $125 each, so even if only half of them work reliably, I should be still OK.
I have a bunch of Sylvania GTA/GTB tubes, and will see how crappy those Russian tubes are, if they work at all.