[Jaeger18]

can you please check my pm thanks @2359glenn

 

[attmci]

I am not able to interpret the test data - is this tube low testing? Seems like a good deal though.

The new A1834 has gm of 7.5. So, yes the tube is weak. But this is still a good deal for some middle to low-end amps.

 

[mordy]

Hi attmci,
An intriguing statement - that a middle to low end amp (whatever that is) is not affected by a low measuring tube. Or maybe you mean that if you have an expensive high end amp, you should only treat it to expensive NOS tubes?
To the best of my understanding, a low reading, as long as it is within specifications for that tube, will sound the same in the amp as a high reading tube, but the remaining life span of the tube will be shorter.
Personally, I would go for the bargains. Can't think of a single tube that I have used that wore out from use; always trying out new stuff....lol.
Or did I misunderstand you and get it all wrong?

 

[chrisdrop]

I like these Fivre 6J5s by themselves, more than with any EL32 co-inputs. Channeling Mordy a bit; the complimentary nature of the tubes really matters. These are wide/ spacious, airy and delicate sounding. They are a bit tilted to the brighter side, but they are certainly worth rolling in, having and using. I am pleased to have come across them.

I think @DecentLevi recently ordered a pair like these. I imagine you'll like 'em too (although I am not sure what amp they are going in!).

 

[Karnicopia]

Here's my current setup I'm really liking the sound of these GE 6j5's I think this is my quietest setup and I wanted to give the Tung Sol's another listen after the Bendix. Honestly I like them both. I also have a pair of GEC 6j5's and had them going for a week or so but wanted to switch back and check these out but I could be happy with either setup.

I also got the fans set up and really like them it took a bit of work to get it to keep the temp stable with the bendix but I just angled the fan on the left to hit the power tube and angle to also hit the (I think they are called chokes) and that kept the whole left side of the amp cool and the right fan just is angled to hit the rest of the tubes and this keeps things stable without needing a lot of fan power. I have the sensor between the transformer and choke and it runs well. Usually if it's going a while it would stay at 88 which I liked because of back to the future. Overall I don't fiddle with that too much but it was kind of nice seeing a readout so I knew how to position things. It ended up being about $55 which I thought was reasonable and it's expandable so I'm putting a 3rd fan behind the DAC. In the pic this is only on the min fan setting and It's never really got over half power and does a great job cooling whatever I put in here. I think my next step with this is I'm just going to put together a box that can sit under the headphone stand and fit the thermostat since they are similarly sized.

In case anyone is interested this is what I ended up going with:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJ2J2K0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NG9TSG4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you want a simpler setup you could just buy one of these and set it for a temp as well and this would put you at $30 total

https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-Controller-AIRPLATE-MULTIFAN/dp/B078PY8L9F/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BB1K3UJU60K2&dchild=1&keywords=ac+infinity+thermal+controller&qid=1590416408&s=electronics&sprefix=ac+infinity+therma,electronics,150&sr=1-1

The only other thing was I did put the amp and DAC on their own outlets and switched to optical and that really cleaned things up (I was kind of shocked how much I noticed it, my audiophile vocabulary is pretty limited but it was impressive) so I think that is something else I may explore a bit is the source and grounding (maybe cables but I want to keep it simple and cheap for now) but I'm really happy with the sound it's just more dialing in the small things and these days I've just kind of been enjoying it instead of tinkering so much..

I've been listening to a lot of this lately. Just found it through a suggestion on another album I like and really enjoy it.

 

[mordy]

I like these Fivre 6J5s by themselves, more than with any EL32 co-inputs. Channeling Mordy a bit; the complimentary nature of the tubes really matters. These are wide/ spacious, airy and delicate sounding. They are a bit tilted to the brighter side, but they are certainly worth rolling in, having and using. I am pleased to have come across them.

I think @DecentLevi recently ordered a pair like these. I imagine you'll like 'em too (although I am not sure what amp they are going in!).

How do they compare to the little black "rusties'?

 

[Zachik]

Question about skirts... Tube skirts, to be exact! (or are those kilts?! )
Anyhow, here goes. I have decided to roll new output tubes in my 6EL3N and discovered the red skirts are flaking and disintegrating - see photo below
As far as I know those are cosmetic and do not serve any purpose, but wanted to know if anyone has any experience with what can be done to prevent (or slow down) the process... The tubes in this amp do NOT get very hot (unlike in my GOTL), so I doubt excess heat causes that to happen!

 

[2359glenn]

Here's my current setup I'm really liking the sound of these GE 6j5's I think this is my quietest setup and I wanted to give the Tung Sol's another listen after the Bendix. Honestly I like them both. I also have a pair of GEC 6j5's and had them going for a week or so but wanted to switch back and check these out but I could be happy with either setup.

I also got the fans set up and really like them it took a bit of work to get it to keep the temp stable with the bendix but I just angled the fan on the left to hit the power tube and angle to also hit the (I think they are called chokes) and that kept the whole left side of the amp cool and the right fan just is angled to hit the rest of the tubes and this keeps things stable without needing a lot of fan power. I have the sensor between the transformer and choke and it runs well. Usually if it's going a while it would stay at 88 which I liked because of back to the future. Overall I don't fiddle with that too much but it was kind of nice seeing a readout so I knew how to position things. It ended up being about $55 which I thought was reasonable and it's expandable so I'm putting a 3rd fan behind the DAC. In the pic this is only on the min fan setting and It's never really got over half power and does a great job cooling whatever I put in here. I think my next step with this is I'm just going to put together a box that can sit under the headphone stand and fit the thermostat since they are similarly sized.

In case anyone is interested this is what I ended up going with:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJ2J2K0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NG9TSG4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you want a simpler setup you could just buy one of these and set it for a temp as well and this would put you at $30 total

https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-Controller-AIRPLATE-MULTIFAN/dp/B078PY8L9F/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BB1K3UJU60K2&dchild=1&keywords=ac+infinity+thermal+controller&qid=1590416408&s=electronics&sprefix=ac+infinity+therma,electronics,150&sr=1-1

The only other thing was I did put the amp and DAC on their own outlets and switched to optical and that really cleaned things up (I was kind of shocked how much I noticed it, my audiophile vocabulary is pretty limited but it was impressive) so I think that is something else I may explore a bit is the source and grounding (maybe cables but I want to keep it simple and cheap for now) but I'm really happy with the sound it's just more dialing in the small things and these days I've just kind of been enjoying it instead of tinkering so much..




I've been listening to a lot of this lately. Just found it through a suggestion on another album I like and really enjoy it.

I normally use the GEC L63 for the driver but when I put in metal GE 6J5s they sounded nearly as good.
If I had to I could live with the GEs and they only cost me $6 for the pair when the GEC L63s cost me $150

 

[2359glenn]

Question about skirts... Tube skirts, to be exact! (or are those kilts?! )
Anyhow, here goes. I have decided to roll new output tubes in my 6EL3N and discovered the red skirts are flaking and disintegrating - see photo below
As far as I know those are cosmetic and do not serve any purpose, but wanted to know if anyone has any experience with what can be done to prevent (or slow down) the process... The tubes in this amp do NOT get very hot (unlike in my GOTL), so I doubt excess heat causes that to happen!

The red skirt is conductive and hooked to the cathode essentially grounding it. It is a shield but I have had some really bad flaking
and scrapped it all off and no change in operation.
So it will work fine and you can scrape it off if you want your tubes to all look the same .

 

[mordy]

The red skirt is conductive and hooked to the cathode essentially grounding it. It is a shield but I have had some really bad flaking
and scrapped it all off and no change in operation.
So it will work fine and you can scrape it off if you want your tubes to all look the same .

Or you could use red shrink wrap to dress them up to look like the Vienna corps:

(The Philips EL3N were made by WIRAG in Vienna, Austria.)

 

[Zachik]

The red skirt is conductive and hooked to the cathode essentially grounding it. It is a shield but I have had some really bad flaking
and scrapped it all off and no change in operation.
So it will work fine and you can scrape it off if you want your tubes to all look the same .

Or you could use red shrink wrap to dress them up

@mordy - I might actually buy Heat Shrink Tubing, preferably in red, and re-dress my flaking EL3N tubes.
(need to measure diameter with caliper and get the right size...).
Either that, or remove completely as Glenn suggests.

 

[gibosi]

Or you could use red shrink wrap to dress them up to look like the Vienna corps:

(The Philips EL3N were made by WIRAG in Vienna, Austria.)

While most Philips EL3N we find on eBay were manufactured by WIRAG, some were manufactured in Eindhoven, Holland; Blackburn, Great Britain; and Loewe Opta in Berlin.

 

[mordy]

While most Philips EL3N we find on eBay were manufactured by WIRAG, some were manufactured in Eindhoven, Holland; Blackburn, Great Britain; and Loewe Opta in Berlin.

I am curious if all the others also had the red band on the glass.

 

[Karnicopia]

I normally use the GEC L63 for the driver but when I put in metal GE 6J5s they sounded nearly as good.
If I had to I could live with the GEs and they only cost me $6 for the pair when the GEC L63s cost me $150

That's good to hear because I honestly thought I had a bit of tin ear but I love the GEC L63 (I thought they were 6j5's too) they just take a long time to sound their best (maybe because they are still breaking in but they sound a lot better 1-2 hrs into warming up) where the GE are just fast quiet and get you so close. For drivers I can't decide between Bendix 6080 and Tung Sol 5998 and even though it draws the soundstage in I really like the Cetron 6336A because it adds a immediacy and dynamics and power like I hear that a lot of people like with the Verite closed it just brings a completely different sound. I'm really enjoying that aspect of it where you can tune the sound and I think I have a good quiet setup and a good dynamic setup and then the Cetron's seem like a changeup if I really want something in my face. I think I got more than I bargained for with this amp.

 

[gibosi]

Question about skirts... Tube skirts, to be exact! (or are those kilts?! )
Anyhow, here goes. I have decided to roll new output tubes in my 6EL3N and discovered the red skirts are flaking and disintegrating - see photo below
As far as I know those are cosmetic and do not serve any purpose, but wanted to know if anyone has any experience with what can be done to prevent (or slow down) the process... The tubes in this amp do NOT get very hot (unlike in my GOTL), so I doubt excess heat causes that to happen!

Used as drivers in the OTL, the EL3N don't get all that hot either. So I just used a little clear tape. It ain't pretty, but it works.