Lots of Tubes

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corndog71

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Lots of Tubes
« on: 28 Sep 2014, 06:51 pm »
Roger,  have you ever looked at the numbers of tubes you handle, test, reject,etc?  Would you share these with us just for information purposes?  I think it would be interesting and informative to see from your perspective the percentage of tubes that meet your specs vs those that don't. 

What are your thoughts on current tube production?  Months ago I spoke with Andy Bowman of Vintage Tube Services and he seemed very pessimistic about the future of tube manufacturing.  He recommended stocking up while prices are still low.  Maybe he was a bit too paranoid.

Freo-1

Re: Lots of Tubes
« Reply #1 on: 28 Sep 2014, 08:15 pm »
Roger,  have you ever looked at the numbers of tubes you handle, test, reject,etc?  Would you share these with us just for information purposes?  I think it would be interesting and informative to see from your perspective the percentage of tubes that meet your specs vs those that don't. 

What are your thoughts on current tube production?  Months ago I spoke with Andy Bowman of Vintage Tube Services and he seemed very pessimistic about the future of tube manufacturing.  He recommended stocking up while prices are still low.  Maybe he was a bit too paranoid.

I think he's right.  Current production tubes are simply not as good as NOS.  I was talking to one of the largest tube dealers in the US, and he said there are still quite a lot of tubes out there left to be had.  Having said that, IMHO, the only reasonable way to stay in this hobby is to look at DIY, and make amps using television or radio/transmitter tubes. 

bdp24

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Re: Lots of Tubes
« Reply #2 on: 29 Sep 2014, 02:36 am »
One benefit of Music Reference amplifier ownership is how long tubes last in them. At the age of 64, I may never again need to re-tube! And if I do, a quad of KT88's isn't that much, relatively.