rosgr63
Headphoneus Supremus
I have RCA branded tubes made by ATES in Italy.
I have to ask Paolo for more info, but it's very complicated I agree.
I have to ask Paolo for more info, but it's very complicated I agree.
Brimar stood for "British Manufactured American Radio" (valves) and as such used all American designations.
I have RCA branded tubes made by ATES in Italy.
I have to ask Paolo for more info, but it's very complicated I agree.
The thing is that the 6SN7 was a US tube. Eventually some UK makers started to make some, but only due to the demand for the tube in the USA.
The whole point of "Brimar" is that they made US type tubes - Brimar stood for "British Manufactured American Radio" (valves) and as such used all American designations. In fact, Brimar/STC was a UK subsidiary of the American giant ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph).
On November 1st that last remaining remnant of ITT in electronics and communications will be known as something else, haha.
Now there is an interesting score. I could see these going for cheap under the radar on fleabay since most would take it for what it looks like: an RCA 6SN7GTB. The micas seem to be the giveaway, they don't have the "teeth" holding them against the glass you typically see on US made RCA tubes. Actually that makes me wonder how they control microphonics in that tube since there doesn't really seem to be anything holding the micas against the glass at all.
The RCA and Sylvania brands are owned by European companies today. Tompson the French consumer Electroncis giant owns RCA, and OSRAM, a division of Siemens in Germany owns Sylvania. Of the Big Three US tube makers, only GE is a strong US company today.
Of course even in the tube heyday, all three of those companies did much more than make tubes. And while GE is a very large company today, they don't make much in the way of consumer electronics anymore.
Wile there really isn't a famous GE 6SN7, GE made some GREAT tubes, especially some of the small 9-pin types. LOVE their black-plate triple-mica 5751's for example.