KeithEmo
Member of the Trade: Emotiva
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2014
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Thank you for bringing that up....
I always find it entertaining how much people are paying for certain tubes, and how they discuss specific variants of certain tube numbers as if they were fine vintages of wine. Back when tubes were current technology, the whole idea of tube numbers was that tubes were standardized. You went into a store and ordered "a 12AX7", and were handed whatever brand they happened to have in stock. There were a few companies offering "premium tubes", which they claimed were slightly quieter, or otherwise had some desirable characteristic, but they were treated like soda or gasoline.... you might pay an extra few cents a gallon for a bottle of soda, and you might well prefer one brand of gasoline over another, or even be quite sure that one brand "runs better in your car", but imagine if your local store started selling "premium soda" for $25 a liter.... (Bear in mind that, when they were current, a cheap signal tube, like a 12AX7, probably cost $2.... and a really premium 12AX7 might cost 50 cents more.)
The simple reality is that the only difference between different batches of tubes are slight variations in a whole slew of minor details - like electrode spacing, cathode coating, heater temperature, and even vacuum pressure - all of which are supposed to have negligible effect on the actual performance of the tube. And, yes, a slight difference in the inter-electrode capacitance of one version may cause it to sound slightly different in a certain circuit, but that difference will be RANDOM. It's not "better" or "worse" - it's just a tiny bit different. And how that difference affects it's performance will depend on the circuit you use it with.
That last point is the really important one.....
THE FACT THAT A CERTAIN TUBE SOUNDS A CERTAIN WAY IN A CERTAIN PIECE OF EQUIPMENT DOES *NOT* MEAN THAT IT WILL SOUND THE SAME WAY IN A DIFFERENT PIECE OF EQUIPMENT. While it is true that certain characteristics, such as an unusually low inter-electrode capacitance, may tend to make a certain tube sound "a little bright" in several different similar pieces of equipment, that isn't necessarily true. And, more to the point, it may not have the same exact effect in other different pieces of equipment. The idea that a certain tube that sounds wonderful in a certain piece of equipment will sound equally wonderful in a different piece of equipment is a fallacy. At best, with luck, it will sound the same in another of the same exact make and model.... and, even then, it may not. (The sort of differences we're talking about are about the same as the difference between routing a wire between two tubes around one side or the other... and larger and more significant differences may be present in the equipment itself. if you're going to obsess over this level of detail, then we should be discussing whether the wire connecting that driver tube to the output tube has three twists or four between them - and whether those are right twists or left twists.)
And, yes, it is true that certain brands may be more consistent than others, or may share certain specific characteristics, but, again, think different brands of soda, or different brands of gasoline... and NOT expensive wines.
By all means, pick and choose, and find tubes that sound just the way you like in your particular amplifier or preamp, or buy the same ones that sound great in the same model owned by your buddy, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that a particular brand or date of tube, or one with a certain color plate, or a certain shape getter, is somehow vastly superior to another - or that it justifies a huge difference in price. Knowing this also makes the hobby a lot more fun.... because it means that, if you buy a dozen cheap tubes on eBay, that nobody's ever heard of, you may just find one that sounds better in your particular amplifier than one of those uber-expensive ones that you can't afford. (And, after all, it's no fun prospecting for gold if you pay market price for it, right?)
I always find it entertaining how much people are paying for certain tubes, and how they discuss specific variants of certain tube numbers as if they were fine vintages of wine. Back when tubes were current technology, the whole idea of tube numbers was that tubes were standardized. You went into a store and ordered "a 12AX7", and were handed whatever brand they happened to have in stock. There were a few companies offering "premium tubes", which they claimed were slightly quieter, or otherwise had some desirable characteristic, but they were treated like soda or gasoline.... you might pay an extra few cents a gallon for a bottle of soda, and you might well prefer one brand of gasoline over another, or even be quite sure that one brand "runs better in your car", but imagine if your local store started selling "premium soda" for $25 a liter.... (Bear in mind that, when they were current, a cheap signal tube, like a 12AX7, probably cost $2.... and a really premium 12AX7 might cost 50 cents more.)
The simple reality is that the only difference between different batches of tubes are slight variations in a whole slew of minor details - like electrode spacing, cathode coating, heater temperature, and even vacuum pressure - all of which are supposed to have negligible effect on the actual performance of the tube. And, yes, a slight difference in the inter-electrode capacitance of one version may cause it to sound slightly different in a certain circuit, but that difference will be RANDOM. It's not "better" or "worse" - it's just a tiny bit different. And how that difference affects it's performance will depend on the circuit you use it with.
That last point is the really important one.....
THE FACT THAT A CERTAIN TUBE SOUNDS A CERTAIN WAY IN A CERTAIN PIECE OF EQUIPMENT DOES *NOT* MEAN THAT IT WILL SOUND THE SAME WAY IN A DIFFERENT PIECE OF EQUIPMENT. While it is true that certain characteristics, such as an unusually low inter-electrode capacitance, may tend to make a certain tube sound "a little bright" in several different similar pieces of equipment, that isn't necessarily true. And, more to the point, it may not have the same exact effect in other different pieces of equipment. The idea that a certain tube that sounds wonderful in a certain piece of equipment will sound equally wonderful in a different piece of equipment is a fallacy. At best, with luck, it will sound the same in another of the same exact make and model.... and, even then, it may not. (The sort of differences we're talking about are about the same as the difference between routing a wire between two tubes around one side or the other... and larger and more significant differences may be present in the equipment itself. if you're going to obsess over this level of detail, then we should be discussing whether the wire connecting that driver tube to the output tube has three twists or four between them - and whether those are right twists or left twists.)
And, yes, it is true that certain brands may be more consistent than others, or may share certain specific characteristics, but, again, think different brands of soda, or different brands of gasoline... and NOT expensive wines.
By all means, pick and choose, and find tubes that sound just the way you like in your particular amplifier or preamp, or buy the same ones that sound great in the same model owned by your buddy, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that a particular brand or date of tube, or one with a certain color plate, or a certain shape getter, is somehow vastly superior to another - or that it justifies a huge difference in price. Knowing this also makes the hobby a lot more fun.... because it means that, if you buy a dozen cheap tubes on eBay, that nobody's ever heard of, you may just find one that sounds better in your particular amplifier than one of those uber-expensive ones that you can't afford. (And, after all, it's no fun prospecting for gold if you pay market price for it, right?)
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