[daycart1]

Hahaha, yes it is a special addiction. I managed to cool off after spending only a couple hundred--tubes last a looong time!

Mitch--those tube are in fantastic aesthetic condition!

 

[vcoheda]

i only have a LD2++. fortunately (for my wallet) the tube selection is limited and they are cheap as well, around $5-10 per tube). i like a little tuberolling. nice to have some options. nothing too crazy though.

 

[braillediver]

"those tube are in fantastic aesthetic condition!"

Even better is the Siemens and Amperex are perfectly matched triode / triode, tube to tube with no noise or microphonics and identical date codes- early 1960's.


Mitch

 

[Amarok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The only end I could see was switching back to SS, but then I couldn't find the sound I was looking for with tubes.

I've heard the transistor rolling is a bit harder than tube rolling.

-=A=-

 

[insidiousness]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newguru /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think I have dropped $135 in the last 2 weeks on tubes since I got my Singlepower PPX3 SLAM! Is there an end in sight? Damn tube rolling gets addicting BUT it isn't a cheap addiction

My last set of two for my X-CanV3 ran me <$5.

 

[newguru]

Quote:

Originally Posted by insidiousness /img/forum/go_quote.gif My last set of two for my X-CanV3 ran me <$5.

Well you aren't getting 6SL7's for that price so consider yourself lucky!

 

[Amarok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob N /img/forum/go_quote.gif This makes me feel better as I've not spent as much as you recently I always tell myself that tubes will probably hold their value if not increase over the next few years.

I bought some E34Ls ~10 years ago. Last I saw they had quadrupled in value. That's better than most investments out there

Unless you somehow knew that Halliburton was about to get some big contracts.

I wonder if buying up lots of HQ tubes of the types that are currently being manufactured is a good idea. Amp designers may be more likely to design around those since they are still in production, so there may be many more amps (aka business opportunities) using those tubes. And since there always seems to be a connoiseur market (eg nuts like us , then the older better tubes should be in demand. So get into the vacuum tube market on the ground floor, and get out before the bubble bursts.

-=A=-

 

[Amarok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braillediver /img/forum/go_quote.gif "Granted, I haven't tried any of the $$$$$ *SN7s, but so far, it doesn't seem necessary." Be honest and admit- You don't know what you're missing because you just don't know. Mitch

Hence the "seem." I, in general, know that I don't know much about what I don't know

What I do know is that my current sound is so close to what I've been listening for since I began listening to high-end equipment that I'm quite satisfied. But then again, I said that to myself 2/3/4 tube combos ago.

Perhaps what I really mean is that I'm too cheap to spring for tubes at that price. Now, a gift might allow me to see if I'm wrong or right. All in the name of science, of course.

I do know that I know that $180 worth of Mullard 6922s in my XCANv3 barely edged out some new $9ea JJ ECC88s.

It's time to redirect my funds to mvsik. I just can't wait until the rapacious RIAA gets out of the way. I'd rather give $10 to the band than $30 to the RIAA labels, of which $5 goes to the band. And no, I don't steal mvsik. I've been on a 99% boycott of the RIAA for ~10 years now. Before then, when the wife and I were DINKS, we'd spend money on new mvsik rather than going to dinner and such.
Another great thing about new equipment is that it breathes new life into your mvsik collection.

-=A=-
(the long winded)

 

[Amarok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by augustwest /img/forum/go_quote.gif I find that if I am patient, and avoid shopping the dealers that require premium prices for their wares, that my modest collection has not been that costly. The part I find the most difficult to rationalize is the high cost of shipping, that's what kills me. I sure wish that there were local dealers, instead of everything being mail order. Last week I spent $10.00 for (4) 6414's & $4.00 for (1) 12az7. That's only $14.00 before shipping. The shipping exceeded half the price of the tubes themselves. The 6829 sounds like an interesting tube, which adapter does it require to use on a SP MPX amp? - augustwest

Where do you buy? I love the 6414. And my TS 12AY7. How's the 12AZ7?
I have a 6829 (GE 5* IIR) and it is my current fave. It needs an ECC1 adapter, same as the 12AZ7. I have an auto heater voltage circuit so I don't know if it needs any adapter heater voltage magic. Most (all?) of the 12A*7 family have center tapped heaters so they can run on 6 or 12 volts depending on how the power is wired to the socket. I have no idea of how Mikhail has wired the ECC1, but I would guess that he uses the 6v option since the ECC1 doesn't require a 12v mod. I sure don't mind not having to worry about voltages, tho

I use the 6414 in front of TS 5687s and 6BL7GTAs.
The others in front of the BL7GTAs.
(I guess this kind of stuff really belongs in the tube rolling thread. But we may want to create a cheapskate rolling thread

)

-=A=-

 

[Amarok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have all the best 6/12sn7gt's .... TS black glass round plate, Ken Rad black glass, RCA gray glass, Sylvania tall bottle vt-231/ 7n7 etc.... I like the 2c51/5670 and the 6414/6829/ types better in most cases. The 6/12sn7gt'a are still excellent tubes but they are no more open or detailed and some of them seem colored in comparison. I still use the TS 12sn7gt clear glass, gray boxplate but I prefer the 2c51 or 12av7/6414 types more often than not. The 6/12sn7gt's have a richer tonality but this richness sometimes comes across as an added thickness and opaqueness compared to the cleaner, more neutral examples like the TS 2c51 or GE 6414 grayplate.

So you use 6829s as outputs? I'm gonna get another couple as spares, but now I'll try 'em as outputs, too. D'OH! I only have one ECC1 adapter, so I won't be trying that anytime soon. I've heard a lot of good things about the 2c51. What adapter does it need? I've been extending the list for my ECC1 adapter by following links to substitutes on Duncan Amps and its friend sites. I haven't come across the 2c51 as an ecc1 type.

 

[edisonwu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob N /img/forum/go_quote.gif How much would you spend on a small signal tube like a 6922 or 12xx7 type?

Depends on who we are and what we have. I bought the cryo B739 (single tube) for 500+USD and I have got some other sealed gold lion B749, 759 that cost me a bunch of $ too. As for 6922, I bought the very early Valvo CCa pinch waist for 400$ per tube and again paid a lot for some other like Siemens and TFK CCa, e188cc, 1950's Amperex. It is hard to say whether the improvement is worth the cost or not. Answers will be various from system to system and from person to person. The key thing to me is I am very happy playing around with them.

 

[Roam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob N /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would generally agree but I actually prefer the richer tonality of the 6SN7Gt's. Have you tried any of the 6DJ8's?

6DJ8's are too "solidstate sounding" for my tastes, not surprising since their distortion spectrum has a higher proportion of higher-order harmonics compared to tubes such as the 6SN7 and its ancestors, the 5687 family, and of course DHT's. It's a tube which I avoid like the RCA coin base 6SN7's from the 70's, run away, run away!

 

[dr.morton]

I spend 22 EUR for replacing the Chinese 6N3 in my Shanling STP-80 with Russian 6N3P-EB's. It was a set of four and I only needed three.
The difference was astonishing. Most likely theold ones were already at their limit. I do not intend to get more sooner or later.

 

[Rob N]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roam /img/forum/go_quote.gif 6DJ8's are too "solidstate sounding" for my tastes, not surprising since their distortion spectrum has a higher proportion of higher-order harmonics compared to tubes such as the 6SN7 and its ancestors, the 5687 family, and of course DHT's. It's a tube which I avoid like the RCA coin base 6SN7's from the 70's, run away, run away!

I prefered the sound of 6DJ8's in an SP amp to 12xx7 types,although the 6SN7 is still my favorite

 

[Pete7]

Just bought an NOS 1950's Sylvania Chrome Top 6SN7GTB for $19 from ebay.