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Hi all Audio Circle.WHAT ? ? ? No comments ?None of the Audio Circle members want to comment on this.I am surprised.Don't be shy.Does that double printing don't let you suspecious about the origin of the tubes.Guy 13
It looks like a late production Mullard
The supplier, (Who's name will not be mention not to get me and him in trouble)says that that NOS could come from Holland, USA or UK.What I would like to know is why a double printing ?Brand new tubes don't have double printing, is that a sign of cheating ? ? ?Guy 13
Why would a tube manufacturer take the time and labour cost to remove labelling from thousands of tubes, by hand, just because another plant in the corporate family was going to put their brand on them to fill and order??
Seems to me, this tube had 2 labels why the vendor had no time or will to remove the original label with alcohol as the tube stock may reach hundreds or thousands units.
That would look more suspicious to me than having two labels.
The double printing is not suspicious at all, it was a very common practice particularly late in the tube era where factories were shutting down and vendors were buying from wherever they could find supply. But the bottom line is, if you are not comfortable, just don't buy. NOS buying, particularly nowadays where supply has virtually disappeared and sellers are grabbing anything they can no matter how dubious, is IMO only for very knowledgeable and experienced tube people. I built my NOS stash over 10 years ago when supply was still quite good (governments were still releasing the last of their stockpiles, and stashes in exotic locations were just coming to market), I wouldn't touch it today.A Radio Shack made in England, for example, is almost certainly an East German or Russian rebrand. Unfortunately, when Brimar and Mullard had stopped most production, Brimar in particular was buying a lot of tubes from crappy iron curtain sources and sticking "Made In England" on them, so a lot of these still float around. Easy to identify. Radio Shack had a pretty lousy track record of sourcing tubes - we have to appreciate that Radio Shack was never an audiophile source, they have been and still are a supplier of cheap parts to basic hobbyists.There are good sounding new production tubes today, and that was not the case 10 years ago. While those Tungsol rebrands made by Sovtex, indeed virtually all Russian production, don't hold a candle to even the lesser sounding 60's NOS, I have been surprised after dismissing Chinese tubes for decades to find some really superb sounding Chinese tubes in the last 2 years - the Shuguang Treasures and Psvane - and sonically I have found that they stand comparison easily to the best NOS - and believe me, I have all the best NOS here to compare to. In the 6SN7, the Shuguang Treasures CV-181 (which is actually not a CV-181 but is electrically a 6SN7 all the way) is a superb tube that might actually be all around better than most NOS. Ditto the Psvane 5881 and EL34. In general, I have found that the production from the TJ/Full Music/Sophia factory to be of high quality build wise but sonically middling, but if one has the bucks, European companies like Emission Labs put out superb sounding tubes.So there are lots of choices. If one has a discomfort buying NOS (and that ad in the first post - that says "brands may vary - Holland, UK or USA manufacture" - I could not trust as the seller is clearly saying they could be anything) today there is no sonic issue with many of the new manufacture tubes out there.
