[Paladin79]

Your memory is failing. I didn't borrow your idea, I flat out stole it.

I was being kind.

I may be requesting your involvement in a tube challenge, you will be a judge so therefore you are eliminated from participating cause I know if anyone can do this, it is you lol.

Oh and most likely I would send you photos of each tube being sealed and the number assigned to it.

 

[bcowen]

I was being kind.

I may be requesting your involvement in a tube challenge, you will be a judge so therefore you are eliminated from participating cause I know if anyone can do this, it is you lol.

Oh and most likely I would send you photos of each tube being sealed and the number assigned to it.

Damn. Lose one little old challenge and get permanently banned from participating again. Harumph.

Seriously I'd be happy to assist as a non-participating tabulator. But just a word of advice to any potential participants: a truly blind test like this is harder than it may appear on the surface. Certainly not impossible if you have a really good handle on sonic differences, but if you're thinking it's a walk in the park, you best be thinking a park about the size of Australia, LOL!

 

[Paladin79]

Damn. Lose one little old challenge and get permanently banned from participating again. Harumph.

Seriously I'd be happy to assist as a non-participating tabulator. But just a word of advice to any potential participants: a truly blind test like this is harder than it may appear on the surface. Certainly not impossible if you have a really good handle on sonic differences, but if you're thinking it's a walk in the park, you best be thinking a park about the size of Australia, LOL!

Obviously if bottom getters sound better than top within the same brand this should be simple. Mix in lesser brands and it just gets easier an easier lol. I do believe though I will stick with the Balvenie as my choice should I win, just to keep things simple.

Bill and Jedi know I can set this up, and any tampering with the tubes would be obvious.

 

[Ripper2860]

I don't really worry much about having top or bottom getter versions because one may sound better. I thoroughly listen to each tube with my amp right-side-up or upside-down and make the determination. I then mark the tube with an arrow indicating which amp orientation sounds best. It involves a bit of time and effort, but well worth it as it potentially cut my tube inventory needs in 1/2. BTW -- Determining left-hand vs right-hand side-getter tubes is a bit easier.

 

[bcowen]

I don't really worry much about having top or bottom getter versions because one may sound better. I thoroughly listen to each tube with my amp right-side-up or upside-down and make the determination. I then mark the tube with an arrow indicating which amp orientation sounds best. It involves a bit of time and effort, but well worth it as it potentially cut my tube inventory needs in 1/2. BTW -- Determining left-hand vs right-hand side-getter tubes is a bit easier.

If you can easily rotate your amp 180 degrees, then your interconnects are way too long. Just sayin'.

 

[Ripper2860]

Yeah, but I make up for that by using a shorter HP cable.

Now that I think about it, I need to add another step to my side getter testing protocol -- top-left-hand-side vs top-right-hand side vs bottom-left-hand side vs bottom-right-hand side.

 

[bcowen]

Yeah, but I make up for that by using a shorter HP cable.

Now that I think about it, I need to add another step to my side getter testing protocol -- top-left-hand-side vs top-right-hand side vs bottom-left-hand side vs bottom-right-hand side.

So how do you handle dual getter tubes? Just toss everything in the clothes dryer while you listen?

 

[Ripper2860]

Dual getters just seem redundant. I just set them aside w/o listening as I have not been able to wrap my mind around those yet.

 

[gibosi]

I am pretty booked up right now and I would not want to ship outside the continental US but in the spring I could set up a tube challenge. Five tubes, concealed in PVC. One bottom getter Chatham if that is a favorite tube for some of you guys, and the other four tubes of my choosing. HeadFi probably frowns on any sort of money wagering but no one ever said anything about Bill and I betting a steak dinner and bottle of wine but that was eight tubes.
With five tubes you have a 20% chance of guessing that particular tube so I would want odds. Anyone who guesses right could get say a bottle of bourbon or scotch with a top price of $50 sent by PayPal. If you do not choose the correct tube you love and can hear such differences in, I would get the cash equivalent of a bottle of Camus XO cognac, or The Balvenie 21 year old port cask scotch. I would let @bcowen know the tubes inside each casing before I send out the tubes so there is no doubt it is on the up and up. I would be going through some personal expense and risk in doing this and I would only use 6as7s and 6080's or such as the other four tubes because I would want the gains to match.
Naturally I do not want people conferring about the tubes so once you listen, you send your answer to Bill and he holds all of them till those interested complete the testing. It is unfair to give instant feedback and the next person in line knows that number 3 is not the correct answer. I would pay shipping to the first person and whoever receives the tubes pays shipping to the next.

This should certainly be easy for anyone who loves that particular tube and knows when they listen the bottom getter sounds better, and Chatham beats say an RCA or Svetlana or whatever tubes I happen to use.

This sounds like a lot of fun. But with my old worn-out ears, there's no way I could guess right. lol.

And I suspect this challenge is designed for those with amps that use only one output tube? Otherwise, you would have to send two of each.

But for sure, I will be curious to learn which tubes you send and if anyone guesses correctly.

 

[Paladin79]

This sounds like a lot of fun. But with my old worn-out ears, there's no way I could guess right. lol.

And I suspect this challenge is designed for those with amps that use only one output tube? Otherwise, you would have to send two of each.

But for sure, I will be curious to learn which tubes you send and if anyone guesses correctly.

Yeah it would be tough to send two but, just think of someone having his own bottom getter Chatham to compare to the tubes I send. That should increase their odds even more!!!

 

[attmci]

@attmci started all this...

Fake news!

 

[PsilocybinCube]

I am pretty booked up right now and I would not want to ship outside the continental US but in the spring I could set up a tube challenge. Five tubes, concealed in PVC. One bottom getter Chatham if that is a favorite tube for some of you guys, and the other four tubes of my choosing. HeadFi probably frowns on any sort of money wagering but no one ever said anything about Bill and I betting a steak dinner and bottle of wine but that was eight tubes.
With five tubes you have a 20% chance of guessing that particular tube so I would want odds. Anyone who guesses right could get say a bottle of bourbon or scotch with a top price of $50 sent by PayPal. If you do not choose the correct tube you love and can hear such differences in, I would get the cash equivalent of a bottle of Camus XO cognac, or The Balvenie 21 year old port cask scotch. I would let @bcowen know the tubes inside each casing before I send out the tubes so there is no doubt it is on the up and up. I would be going through some personal expense and risk in doing this and I would only use 6as7s and 6080's or such as the other four tubes because I would want the gains to match.
Naturally I do not want people conferring about the tubes so once you listen, you send your answer to Bill and he holds all of them till those interested complete the testing. It is unfair to give instant feedback and the next person in line knows that number 3 is not the correct answer. I would pay shipping to the first person and whoever receives the tubes pays shipping to the next.

This should certainly be easy for anyone who loves that particular tube and knows when they listen the bottom getter sounds better, and Chatham beats say an RCA or Svetlana or whatever tubes I happen to use.

Not to make light of the challenge, but you are making it somewhat easy. When you plug in the 5998 everything gets about 15% louder so it will be a dead giveaway from the RCA and Svetlana. Furthermore, the Svetlana changes lyrics to Russian, so that's obvious, too.

I think a better challenge would be do the same tube but only specify bottom vs. top getter.

 

[Paladin79]

Not to make light of the challenge, but you are making it somewhat easy. When you plug in the 5998 everything gets about 15% louder so it will be a dead giveaway from the RCA and Svetlana. Furthermore, the Svetlana changes lyrics to Russian, so that's obvious, too.

I think a better challenge would be do the same tube but only specify bottom vs. top getter.

I have not checked gain on tubes listed, I deal with so many tubes I generally look such things up as needed, Ithought to myself in my posting that a 7236 would not work well. I am not exactly new at this type of thing so all tubes will have some similar characteristics. In the case of the challenge with Bill, I may well have spent $1,000 to win a $100 dinner if you include a bit of my time.

My statement: I would only use 6as7s and 6080's or such as the other four tubes because I would want the gains to match.

I honestly do not remember if both of those are medium gain tubes. Now part of it is folks saying they can hear this or that in the bottom getter Chatham so even if I were to use bottom getter RCA's or Svetlana's, certainly they would be inferior. The challenge is to pick out what they believe is the bottom getter Chatham and there will only be one of them included.

I also try to be fair, in Bill's case I included some very good 6sn7's to contrast the GE tube he was to select.

 

[JKDJedi]

Damn. Lose one little old challenge and get permanently banned from participating again. Harumph.

Seriously I'd be happy to assist as a non-participating tabulator. But just a word of advice to any potential participants: a truly blind test like this is harder than it may appear on the surface. Certainly not impossible if you have a really good handle on sonic differences, but if you're thinking it's a walk in the park, you best be thinking a park about the size of Australia, LOL!

This is true, I had an idea that I was gonna come out like a champ before I ever received anything (from @Paladin79 ) and when the tubes arrived and the listening session began... terror ensued.. oh my God.. what will my peers think if I pick the weakest tube!! LOL!! It was a lot of fun though. I literally had to shut my eyes and go in Zen mode to hear what I was hearing. Since I'm already feeling the pressure here, I'll have to concede that the double getter/bottom thing could very well be a placebo effect and it's only pointed towards said tube to it's kind and not extended as a whole towards ALL 6as7g tubes, although the GEC 6AS7g is a bottom getter tube. (joking) Am I?

 

[Velozity]

I have not checked gain on tubes listed, I deal with so many tubes I generally look such things up as needed, Ithought to myself in my posting that a 7236 would not work well. I am not exactly new at this type of thing so all tubes will have some similar characteristics. In the case of the challenge with Bill, I may well have spent $1,000 to win a $100 dinner if you include a bit of my time.

My statement: I would only use 6as7s and 6080's or such as the other four tubes because I would want the gains to match.

I honestly do not remember if both of those are medium gain tubes. Now part of it is folks saying they can hear this or that in the bottom getter Chatham so even if I were to use bottom getter RCA's or Svetlana's, certainly they would be inferior. The challenge is to pick out what they believe is the bottom getter Chatham and there will only be one of them included.

I also try to be fair, in Bill's case I included some very good 6sn7's to contrast the GE tube he was to select.

This could work, but I agree with @PsilocybinCube I would be more interested in a limited "getter" shootout. One bottom getter Chatham vs. 4 top getters, and one bottom getter RCA vs. 4 top getters. Same could be done with 5998 if there are enough around. Might be difficult to gather enough top getter tubes for this but if a few of us lend a tube maybe it could work. Though my GOTL uses dual power tubes so I couldn't participate anyway. Unless you're going to send an Incubus Elegan on tour...