[ratso]

a little while ago, i organized a mini "group buy" of the 6H30P-DR 'super tube'. 6 people (including me) got in on it. the reason why i did this was this tube is VERY expensive here in the US - $160 each at the tube store! after doing some online searching, i accidently ran across a site that had them for an unbelievable price - $35 each delivered. it was a russian tube store, and i couldn't find any info on this place online either pro or con. because of their great prices, i thought i would start a thread informing people of them so that if our experience is a good one, other tube lovers might have a new source for tubes.

they had a minimum order of $200 euro's, so the group buy was organized. the store is here: www.tubes.ru we sent a paypal (yes they accept it) to nikolay (who i believe is the main guy there) on thurs. feb 26th, and the tubes were sent out the following tues. pretty quick service in my book. the tubes arrived on march 15th, which i thought was suprisingly fast - only 12 days! they arrived well packaged - nothing exotic, but certainly more than adequate. nikolay included the tube's schematic sheet (in russian, cool) and a pocket calendar of moscow 

in the interest of fairness, i will state that our order was 2 tubes short. HOWEVER, i must say 2 things about this: 1. i changed the order at the last second to include 2 more tubes so i probably made the order somewhat confusing. 2. nikolay responded immediately when i told him the problem, was very apologetic and promised to get the 2 tubes out ASAP. to my way of thinking this is all sort of a positive - when things do go wrong, it is nice to see a place that will quickly act to correct the problem.

i have sent the tubes UPS to the other 5 guys a few days ago. i will email them and ask them to please leave a comment here with what they think. not having my 2 tubes yet, i can't add any thoughts for now.

[JoshK]

So far I've had zero issues with ordering tubes from Russia, mostly off ebay.  Knock on wood. 

I've gotten lots of very old packing (likely orginal) that smells musty like old boxes from 5 decades ago would.  Often times I get the original data sheets with the tubes (in cyrilic).

I also buy a lot of caps from Russia. Same experience, all good.  IMO, the old stock caps from Russia are a bargain.  The tolerances and standards are something that isn't come by in todays production due to the cost, but was a matter of national pride and war time efforts.   All reports suggest that many of their caps sound better than the typical boutique audiophile caps and the prices are a mere fraction.  Of course, if they were produced today they would likely cost much more than the boutique caps. 

[ted_b]

Ratso,
I'm one of the first ones to use the DR supertube in the Modwright gear (I'm not sure who was the first, but the point being that us MW users have loved the DR's in the 36.5 pre, and some in the TP for some time).  I've said all along that Parts Connexion has them every day for $165 for a well matched pair (not individually) and often runs 15-20% off sales.  Although a higher price than the bargains you've found, there is NO reason to ever buy for $160/each. 

[tdangelo]

Ratso - did you actually get the 6H30P-DR super tube's or just the regular 6H30's?

Thanks
Tony

[rpf]

I was part of this group buy and Mike shipped them out to us as soon as he got them. I received my pair  yesterday and they are in fact DRs and sound great. Thanks Mike!

Who's up for ordering some more?

[HT cOz]

How much are those russian 6SN7 (6H8C) tubes?  Might be interested in getting in on them.

[rpf]

Ratso,
I'm one of the first ones to use the DR supertube in the Modwright gear (I'm not sure who was the first, but the point being that us MW users have loved the DR's in the 36.5 pre, and some in the TP for some time).  I've said all along that Parts Connexion has them every day for $165 for a well matched pair (not individually) and often runs 15-20% off sales.  Although a higher price than the bargains you've found, there is NO reason to ever buy for $160/each. 

Agreed, but unfortunately Parts Connexion was out of them for over six months and didn't know when they would be getting more. When they did get them in, they initially only had 10. Now they apparently have 300. 

[ratso]

hmm... hate to put a damper on the fun but it looks like one of the guys in our group has already been in contact with them for more and the prices seem to have risen substantially on these (basically they doubled in price). we may have gotten lucky. however even at $70 each that is still (a little) cheaper then a lot of US places.

[JoshK]

Glad I got some back when they were < $20/ea! 

[ted_b]

DR's for $20?  Are you sure?  They look a a lot like regular 6H30's.  If so, good catch!   

[JoshK]

These are DRs...I verified.  $13/ea was the going rate on ebay last year.  Internet chatter has done this sort of price action to all of our beloved tubes, so much so that most DIY tube builders won't mention good tube finds on forums anymore.

Its the tube vendors, I am pretty sure, that are going and buying up these supplies to take away the opportunity for you and I to score reasonable deals.  So long as there seems to be some demand, they know they can profit off the deal.  If you can't purchase cheap on ebay then you are force to buy through them.

I am sorry if I am insulting vendors in general, I am sure many are quite respectable, but I think this practice is going on quite strong. 

My source for 6H30pis sold out last year, saying that some person, who they thought was "in the business" came and bought up his stash of >1,000.  I had only bought one lot of 10 off him.

[BillB]

I have found that the standard Russian NOS tubes are really nice especially for the money. When you can buy a dozen NOS 60s-70s russian tubes for less than the price of a single tube for most brands, its definitely worth the "risk".

[daz_bike]

Apparently the vintage of the DR tubes is important to the sound quality you will get from them.  1986 and below are the better sounding DR's.  Just becasue it is DR does not mean that they all sound the same.

Parts ConneXion have these vintage tubes (1986 or earlier) and a fantastic tube matching service. 

[tdangelo]

I just got an email from www.tubes.ru - the price is now $70.00 each...

[Berndt]

I use russian PIO caps in my linestage and phono stage.
It's a drag to wait for ebay lots to do my builds but the results have been good.
Josh, I bought the 1579's you suggested.
I'll compare them to my new quiver of 6sl7's.
Bill

[mgalusha]

UPS just dropped my tubes from the GB, they are the real deal and the one I opened was a 1986, at least I think so. Thanks again Mike for doing this. 

Mike

[ratso]

hey no problem! looks like we indeed got lucky this time. BTW for anyone interested in this thread, he has lots of tubes for sale on his website and appears to be very legit. it wouldn't hurt anyone to drop him a line to check out his prices for other tubes.