[chrisdrop]

Here are some of the tubes I purchased last night on my 6J5 shoppping spree - early Fivre black plate 6J5GT. Have been watching this pair for a long time.



1937 Zenith (Sylvania) 6J5G, similar to @mordy 's 6C5G above, inspired me to pull the trigger. Plates are the same smooth black round plates in my Sylvania VT-94D metal base.



My own pair of Ken-Rad 6J5GT, the lead-bellies.



Been meaning to get a pair of these for a long time, they are an essential but dragged my feet since they show up quite often. STC/Brimar 6J5G, early black plate pair. I overpayed for these, passed on the opportunity for a quad for the same price in the past, but they are immaculate and in original boxes, so what the heck.



More to come

You probably already have scoured the web, but in case of use - the guys @ Billington seem to have a quantity of 6J5s https://web211.secure-secure.co.uk/tube-and-valve-electronics.co.uk/downloads/Cat Oct 2019 v1.pdf

If you email them they are good about letting you know exactly what they have on the shelf.

 

[Phantaminum]

That power tube list has probably driven the sales of low Rp output tubes for years, it's famous! But Nick forgot two tubes in the upper echelon, the Tung-Sol 7802 and Nippon Electric 6AS7G/6520

I might be the USA's chief importer of NEC 6AS7G, if I get enough, hoping to distribute some among GOTL owners, they are very nice tubes and cheap overseas.

Don't forget people who used to own the GOTL as well.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

You probably already have scoured the web, but in case of use - the guys @ Billington seem to have a quantity of 6J5s https://web211.secure-secure.co.uk/tube-and-valve-electronics.co.uk/downloads/Cat Oct 2019 v1.pdf

If you email them they are good about letting you know exactly what they have on the shelf.

Thanks, Chris, I have bought from Martin at Billington before, very nice guy and has an amazing collection of tubes.

Don't forget people who used to own the GOTL as well.

Once a member, always a member

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Tung-Sol 6SN7GT black glass round plate is for sale, it is a 1948 Raytheon rebrand. Tests 107% / 109%, very low hours $150 plus shipping, this is what I paid for the tube. I am selling some other 6SN7s soon too, I was planning to keep my rarest ones, but I sold a few and now the flood gates are opening, saying goodbye.

 

[JazzVinyl]

The difference is that this tube works and measures very well.
So how to restore it?
Black nail polish? Black tape? Red shrink wrap (to compete with JV's special edition 6BX7)?

I would knock the rust off, mask the pins with tape, then spray paint with "high heat" paint. Lime green would look good.

 

[JazzVinyl]

Have another picture to share, here we have Fivre 6C5G and Mullard 6080 before bed. I've always felt the Mullard was one of the best 6080s, prices on these have gone up astronomically over the past two years or so. And they are very pretty!

Looks great!

 

[gibosi]

It is certainly very enticing. I think the gel3n looks great and elegant as well. For el3n tubes, are there only the philips tubes? As a potential first time tube user, im still deciding whether to go down this tube rolling 'rabbit hole'.

Well first, Philips manufactured the EL3N in at least four different factories -- Eindhoven, Holland; Blackburn/Mullard, England; Vienna/WIRAG, Austria and Loewe Opta, Berlin. And tubes manufactured in these factories all sound different. Further, browsing eBay listings, you will see Belvu-Mazda, Tungsram, Visseaux and perhaps others. So it is certainly possible to roll different EL3N. Plus, with adapters, it is possible to roll EL34 and similar pentodes. So while the 'rabbit hole' is not as wide and deep as that of the GOTL, it's certainly big enough to jump in. lol

 

[mordy]

I would knock the rust off, mask the pins with tape, then spray paint with "high heat" paint. Lime green would look good.

What is a good way of removing the rust?
They run pretty cool so I don’t think high temp paint is necessary.
The pins were fairly clean so I surmise that the tube was stored in a humid environment. Quite a lot of these tubes have rust on them to various degrees which translates into bargain prices.
The all metal tube was more expensive to manufacture than tubes with a glass envelope and that’s why they seem to be disappearing by US manufacturers at the beginning of the 50’s.
Look, if you drop one it is unlikely to break!

 

[mordy]

Well first, Philips manufactured the EL3N in at least four different factories -- Eindhoven, Holland; Blackburn/Mullard, England; Vienna/WIRAG, Austria and Loewe Opta, Berlin. And tubes manufactured in these factories all sound different. Further, browsing eBay listings, you will see Belvu-Mazda, Tungsram, Visseaux and perhaps others. So it is certainly possible to roll different EL3N. Plus, with adapters, it is possible to roll EL34 and similar pentodes. So while the 'rabbit hole' is not as wide and deep as that of the GOTL, it's certainly big enough to jump in. lol

Can you roll EL8 and EL6?

 

[gibosi]

Can you roll EL8 and EL6?

As I don't have a GEL3N, I don't know for sure... But in a private message, Whirlwind told me that the EL8 were much too noisy in his GEL3N.

 

[mordy]

If you have a six cylinder old car with a distributor I have a tip on how to jazz up the performance:
RCA Electron Tube Distributor
https://www.ebay.com/itm/RCA-Electr...006495?hash=item5449f465df:g:Gc0AAOSwjRpZTWZC

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I got my giant box of Japanese tubes today

Was most excited to compare the Nippon Electric 6520 to the 6AS7G, bought two pairs of them. Impressions after doing some back and forth swapping for about an hour is they do have a little more air and less distortion! Very nice sounding power tubes. I am now wondering how close they are to the GEC 6AS7G ...my Crackatwoa sold today, so I will have to compare them before I ship it off, it takes a single output tube and I only have one GEC 6AS7G. I think I now know why I got into a bidding war over a pair of these tubes.



The other tube I was excited to try is the Nippon Electric 6080. I bought a set of 10 untested for $35. The first two I grabbed passed in my tester, popped them in and one died within minutes and the other arced lol. Saying goodbye to that pair, luckily the second one I tried appeared safe after about an hour of testing with crappy headphones.

First impression of the NEC 6080 is it is good, for a 6080. A little bright, but overall nice sounding. Nowhere near the airiness of the 6AS7G or 6520 though, I definitely have to do some more listening to see where they fall in the 6080 lineup for me. I have promised these to some GOTL threaders, will have to make absolutely sure they are safe to use before sending, the first pair gave me a scare.

 

[mordy]

Another discovery found serendipitously - metal tubes take longer to warm up than glass tubes.
How do I know? I am just starting to explore the 6C5/6J5 possibilities and am trying odd single tubes in pairs. In two instances using one glass tube and one metal tube in combination (at least same designation and brand lol) the metal tube did not sound good at all. Then suddenly it came up to speed and sounded (very) similar.
Preliminary findings are that it may be possible to get the sound of much more expensive dual 6SN7 type tubes at a fraction of the cost by combining two predecessor triodes.

 

[mordy]

I got my giant box of Japanese tubes today

Was most excited to compare the Nippon Electric 6520 to the 6AS7G, bought two pairs of them. Impressions after doing some back and forth swapping for about an hour is they do have a little more air and less distortion! Very nice sounding power tubes. I am now wondering how close they are to the GEC 6AS7G ...my Crackatwoa sold today, so I will have to compare them before I ship it off, it takes a single output tube and I only have one GEC 6AS7G. I think I now know why I got into a bidding war over a pair of these tubes.



The other tube I was excited to try is the Nippon Electric 6080. I bought a set of 10 untested for $35. The first two I grabbed passed in my tester, popped them in and one died within minutes and the other arced lol. Saying goodbye to that pair, luckily the second one I tried appeared safe after about an hour of testing with crappy headphones.

First impression of the NEC 6080 is it is good, for a 6080. A little bright, but overall nice sounding. Nowhere near the airiness of the 6AS7G or 6520 though, I definitely have to do some more listening to see where they fall in the 6080 lineup for me. I have promised these to some GOTL threaders, will have to make absolutely sure they are safe to use before sending, the first pair gave me a scare.

Johnnysound on the Euforia thread has the NEC 6080 and likes them.

 

[UntilThen]

That power tube list has probably driven the sales of low Rp output tubes for years, it's famous! But Nick forgot two tubes in the upper echelon, the Tung-Sol 7802 and Nippon Electric 6AS7G/6520

The discerning ones will know which are the better sounding power tubes. Nick did a service to the community but unfortunately drove the price of tubes like the GEC 6as7g sky high and has become almost extinct. However he's not the only one to extol the virtues of such tubes. Stavros in his private correspondence with me, told me the GEC 6as7g is the best you can get out of the 6as7 the world. Having heard them and compare with the other power tubes, I agree and not because everyone is saying so.

Japan produced a lot of good audio gear so I'm not surprised that their tubes are good. There's a legend of Sansui, Yamaha, Luxman, Denon, Pioneer vintage amp lovers who regularly import these amps from Japan. Even speakers. I've heard the Diatone DS-3000 which sounded amazing driven by the Sansui au-alpha 907mr, the amp I eventually bought. Almost bought the Diatone too but my present accommodation is best suited for the Axis VoiceBox S monitor on stands.