[DarkAngel]

I own and have seen various chinese designed audio gear where small tubes like 12ax7 have a thin wire clip attaching at the base on either side of tube with loop on top to catch tip of tube..........reminds me of wire retaining clip on champagne cork.

Can this be removed so vibration ring can be placed on tube? Does it have any electrical significance or simply a retaining clip to phsically help keep tube in its socket?

 

[sc53]

My Meier Eartube has those retaining clips and in trying to ease them off the tubes in order to do some tube rolling a couple of them broke off their soldering points. I just removed them the rest of the way and there was no effect on sound that I could tell. I added my own vibration damping rings to the tubes and like them better anyway. I've seen some other gear with these retaining clips, don't know why they are used since they make removing the tube next to impossible without breaking the thing off.

 

[ironbut]

I have a couple of vintage tube products that use these clips. For the most part, they are used to just keep the tube seated. I have an old Ampex reel to reel that is a portable unit and it uses them so the tubes won't fall out and break. Unlike today, since tube recorders, tv's, film projectors, and radios were used by everybody, they didn't want just anybody to have to open the backs of these units and fiddle with the tubes. Just imagine your grandmother doing that! Well, if she was a teacher, she may have! But, if she was a housewife, she probably waited for grandpa who thought that he knew what he was doing. Drug stores used to All have a large roll around tube tester with enough sockets to test many of the tubes that were commonly used. And they obviously kept a stock of maybe up to a hundred tube types. Appliance stores used to have a more complete selection of tubes but usually of only the brands that the TV's, radios etc. that they were dealers of. That's why so many tubes are rebranded GE, Westinghouse etc..