[ludoo]

I recently discovered a stash of NOS tubes from a store that used to repair radios and TVs in the 60s. Prompted by Donald (dBel84), I stopped by yesterday and picked up a few NOS PCC88 at a very decent price. From the huge box where they were kept I picked a few Philips, and a few from an unknown brand -- Giant Electronics (Brand) -- which the owner said his father much preferred to any other brand, even well known ones like Philips, Siemens, etc.

I searched on Google Images to see if they are a rebrand of other known tubes, but they look different from all the ones I could find. Here are the pics, the first one who spots what they are wins a pair (ex shipping, about 4-5 euros overseas, less to the EU). A pair will be on their way shortly to dBel84.

 

[Alfiax]

The use of a flying saucer getter and the style of the mica supports suggests Soviet manufacture- a reboxed and relabeled 6n23p? I'm going to guess from the Reflektor and not Kaluga factory as the plate ends appear to be closed and not "pi-shaped".

 

[dBel84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ludoo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I recently discovered a stash of NOS tubes ......Giant Electronics (Brand) ........I searched on Google Images to see if they are a rebrand of other known tubes, but they look different from all the ones I could find.

They look pretty familiar but I can't place them. Do they have any etched letters / numbers on the base or along the base?

Looking forward to hearing them - my thanks for sharing your find ..dB

 

[digger945]

What ^he^ said.
The mica's are similar to Sovtek, the boxes do look like 6GM8/ECC86.
Does runner up get a pair at discount?
Did you intentionally forget to show a pic of the bottoms?

 

[dBel84]

deleted - double post ..dB

 

[ludoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfiax /img/forum/go_quote.gif The use of a flying saucer getter and the style of the mica supports suggests Soviet manufacture- a reboxed and relabeled 6n23p? I'm going to guess from the Reflektor and not Kaluga factory as the plate ends appear to be closed and not "pi-shaped".

YGPM.

So the NY address on the box is bogus? Or is this an example of cold-war globalism?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dBel84 /img/forum/go_quote.gif They look pretty familiar but I can't place them. Do they have any etched letters / numbers on the base or along the base?

I opened two boxes, one has the number '2' on the base, shaped in the glass, the other has '14'. Apart from that, the tubes are identical.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dBel84 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Looking forward to hearing them - my thanks for sharing your find ..dB

Well, it's you that got me started down this road...

Quote:

Originally Posted by digger945 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does runner up get a pair at discount?

Sure, I will send a couple more to Donald and he can forward them to you. I will just ask you the price I paid, free shipping as I would have sent a pair to Donald anyway.

Quote:

Did you intentionally forget to show a pic of the bottoms?

See above, there's nothing below apart from a number in the glass. I did not think it was of any relevance.

 

[Tridacnid]

Looks pretty similar to a pair of EH 6922's I have. But not quite.

 

[Coreyk78]

It looks very similar to a Voshkod 6N23P that I have sitting in front of me, the disc getter is identical.

 

[Alfiax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ludoo /img/forum/go_quote.gif So the NY address on the box is bogus? Or is this an example of cold-war globalism?

The Soviets raised extra hard cash by selling their products on the international markets, in the case of vacuum tubes and other electronics through a state-owned corporation called ELORG, which is probably best known to video game fans for playing a part in the licensing drama surrounding Tetris. If you look around you can find bilingual datasheets that they produced some time in the seventies and eighties for a range of tubes. Since Soviet production was relatively inefficient their products were usually not the best deal, but as the big US and European manufacturers ramped down tube production while the Soviets kept on chugging it probably gradually became more reasonable.

Giant was likely a middleman company with no production capacity of its own which relabeled tubes from wherever they could get them cheapest. There are a lot of shenanigans associated with some of these brands, for example selling factory seconds or even reprocessed 'post-consumer' tubes. One of the most common practices- one even used by the major tube producers as time went on- would be to relabel a tube as a close equivalent. In this case, these tubes almost certainly have 6.3v and not 7v filaments, not a huge difference, but in other cases it was more egregious. There are some interesting threads over on diyAudio exploring this with sweep tubes.

 

[cetoole]

All I know about Giant Electronics Brand is that it was an Italian distributor of vacuum tubes. The tubes though certainly look Russian manufactured to me, especially with those sharp pins. Basically all of my soviet tubes are like that, and I have never seen it on my NOS American or Western European tubes.