[leftside]

I am very fortunate to have a shop 5 minutes away from my house that lets me rent time with the Amplitrex.
It does come in extremely useful for my obsession with buying tubes from eBay. Many sellers list NOS, and sell tubes that are very low. Even if you run the Amplitrex in “Auto Bias”, well used tubes may auto bias to look much better than with the fixed bias setting.
Just today I tested some Tung Sol 6AS7G that were listed as “NOS”, fixed bias showed very low, but auto bias looks pretty good. I’ve never had a seller argue with me when I send the the test results.
I also scored 4 MELZ, a Mullard metal GZ34, and a pair of Tung Sol 6C8G that all tested new today. Low scores on pairs of Mullard 6080, and TS6AS7, but the 5998’s more than make up for it.

I'll have to do a little more digging on auto bias vs fixed bias with the Amplitrex. Have you also hooked it up to a laptop and plotted the curves? It's pretty cool.

Nice haul you got there.

 

[jbua5150]

I'll have to do a little more digging on auto bias vs fixed bias with the Amplitrex. Have you also hooked it up to a laptop and plotted the curves? It's pretty cool.

Nice haul you got there.

I have not done any of the curve tracing or any of the things that require the computer connection.

The “fixed bias” setting is the best way to judge a tubes actual quality from my experience, but I’m very much a novice with the Amplitrex.

 

[bcowen]

Very nice. Happy to see someone else on here with an Amplitrex. That thing has saved me thousands of dollars in refunds and returning tubes that tested nowhere near close to "advertised". This was the latest message I received after receiving tubes that were supposedly "NOS" but tested below 50% emissions and GM. I have thankfully also received plenty of tubes that test as advertised and even a few that test stronger than advertised.

LOL! I'm a big Hickok fan when it comes to vintage testers. But comparing any vintage tester to the Amplitrex is like comparing a 1965 CRT television to a modern 4K OLED. Technology has advanced a wee bit in the intervening years.

 

[JamieMcC]

I have a vintage Hickok 600A I have used for testing it's from the 50s I think. I haven't a clue when it was last calibrated however when testing I do have a few tubes of the type I mainly use which I've purchased in the past that were Amplitrex tested from different legitimate tube suppliers I use these for comparisons if I get a similar reading in my tester to that of the Amplitrex tested tube when tested in the same tester it's a good benchmark to have.

 

[whirlwind]

I received my shipment of tubes today.
The 5998 do appear to have the top and bottom getters.
They all tested over 100% on an Amplitrex AT1000.
I’m a happy guy

Great haul....congrats

 

[leftside]

I have a vintage Hickok 600A I have used for testing it's from the 50s I think. I haven't a clue when it was last calibrated however when testing I do have a few tubes of the type I mainly use which I've purchased in the past that were Amplitrex tested from different legitimate tube suppliers I use these for comparisons if I get a similar reading in my tester to that of the Amplitrex tested tube when tested in the same tester it's a good benchmark to have.

This is very true. I purchase tubes sometimes from a guy in the UK. I'm always amazed how close his AVO VCM163 test results are to mine.

 

[BackwardPawn]

I was just wondering if anybody has tried the current production Sino tubes. I've currently got a pair of Svetlana tubes which are acceptable for everyday use and some Chathams I use for music. I was looking for a good backup tubes for the Svetlana and noticed the Sino is readily available. Are they worth getting, mainly for games and movies. I'm not overly confident about getting the Svetlana tubes from Ukraine, considering they have other things to deal with at the moment.

 

[Odin412]

I was just wondering if anybody has tried the current production Sino tubes. I've currently got a pair of Svetlana tubes which are acceptable for everyday use and some Chathams I use for music. I was looking for a good backup tubes for the Svetlana and noticed the Sino is readily available. Are they worth getting, mainly for games and movies. I'm not overly confident about getting the Svetlana tubes from Ukraine, considering they have other things to deal with at the moment.

I tried one and my notes say "good bass; lifelike and spacious midrange; smooth treble that is very slightly bright". It's worth trying, but I have other tubes that I like more.

 

[g0ldl10n]

I was just wondering if anybody has tried the current production Sino tubes. I've currently got a pair of Svetlana tubes which are acceptable for everyday use and some Chathams I use for music. I was looking for a good backup tubes for the Svetlana and noticed the Sino is readily available. Are they worth getting, mainly for games and movies. I'm not overly confident about getting the Svetlana tubes from Ukraine, considering they have other things to deal with at the moment.

FWIW, all my orders from Ukraine in the past year have came in, no issues.

 

[gibosi]

My experience has been the same. No problems.

 

[Odin412]

Same here - I ordered some tubes from Ukraine and they arrived with no issues.

 

[dpump]

How long did the tubes from Ukraine take to arrive? I purchased some tubes on January 9 and they processed thru Kiev on the 14th, but no tracking update since then.

 

[LobalWarming]

I've found it takes 3-4 weeks for tubes to arrive here from Ukraine... but I'm on the far side of the country - in the country - local mail can take week to roll itself the last 40kms

 

[bcowen]

Same here - I ordered some tubes from Ukraine and they arrived with no issues.

Same here. And personally, I'd much rather have a Svetlana than any bargain basement Chinese tube. Now if PSVane or LinLai or one of the boutique China manfacturers were to come out with a 6AS7G I'd likely be interested, but until then....no.

 

[Odin412]

Now if PSVane or LinLai or one of the boutique China manfacturers were to come out with a 6AS7G I'd likely be interested, but until then....no.

Agreed, a new-production Psvane 6AS7G would be very tempting indeed. Hopefully someone from Psvane follows Head-fi