[spyder1]

  I think somehow the focus has shifted on everyone moving on to end game tubes and disregarding the cheaper lovelier deals you can find. Ebay lately has quite decent tubes for quite decent prices and some of them are completely ignored!
 
I see tubes like E188CC French RTC 1965 tubes completely disregarded and they are quite amazing
I got 3 singles 40$ a pop of Yellow Dario Miniwatt E188CC Made in Heerlen, 1961-1962 pretty much the next best thing after E188CC D-Getters.
I see people buying 7L4 E88CC D-Getter Heerlens labeled Telefunken for 200 USD + while disregarding red Valvo 7L4 E88CC D-Getters (like the ones in my signature ) for much less and I'll be damned if these aren't 88% PWs at less than 50% of the price !
 
What else is ignored hmm - regular Philips Miniwatt O-Getter E88CCs are quite great indeed (even the ones from the 70s !). Oldie ECC88 and PCC88 Heerlens with O-getters, Hamburgs are also quite ignored in general. Regular Siemens E88CC are also quite great.
 
The only downside to these is ebay - you don't know what you're getting, even if it looks super good it may have problems. For example I buy a tube that tests really high on mA and I see that it is unstable and cannot be controlled by grid voltage - and naturally this tube has hiss and crackle

​kolkoo, thanks for pointing out that there are still great vaccum tubes available for decent prices, and not discourage new tube rollers. Wonderful, musical, vaccum tubes are not only available to the wealthy!

 

[tvnosaint]

Those rtc tubes have been there for a while. Seems like the seller was in question.
I keep a look out for old teles and Siemens e188cc and dgetter tubes. Less so these days as I don't listen to hps as often. Those tubes are gaps to me. Also the nagging and persistent case of 'wanna upgrade my amp' keeps the purse strings tight. Not to mention a trip to the old world. Wine country in Germany and Alsace with a stint in Amsterdam . Bucket list stuff.
Still plenty of guys starting to work at the entry level of the tube game. More to come. I started lurking here bout 10 years back. I didn't sign up until a couple years ago. A lot of ebb and flow the one constant is the price of ccas .they ran about $300 then too. Unless you got lucky.

 

[TK16]

That single PW is at $89 already with more than 4 days left.

 

[tvnosaint]

I'll say the 1st strong pair of Heerlen e88ccs were a game changer to me. To me, more so than the best Russians. Which are also stupid good. So I agree with kolkoo as well and concur with spyder. Stock tubes are junk. It doesn't cost that much to see real improvements in clarity tone and staging

 

[billerb1]

I'll say the 1st strong pair of Heerlen e88ccs were a game changer to me. To me, more so than the best Russians. Which are also stupid good. So I agree with kolkoo as well and concur with spyder. Stock tubes are junk. It doesn't cost that much to see real improvements in clarity tone and staging

Game changer for me too the first time I got hit with the better Holland tubes.  I'd dinked around  like most of us do when I knew little to absolutely nothing about tubes.  I'd talk myself into thinking whatever minor upgrade I did that cost me relatively little sounded better than what I'd been listening to up to that point.  And there was some slight improvement to one degree or another.  Then a seller talked me into a pair of the early 2 star SQ Heerlen Miniwatt E88CC's.  He actually had a different pair of tubes I was more interested in, I think they were American made white label PQ's.  I blew off his advice and got the PQ's and they were ok but a little too hot for my system then.  I crawled back to him and asked (begged) if I could return those and get the Miniwatts.  He made me grovel some and then agreed.  He spoke very broken English but just kept repeating that if I wanted to really hear the MUSIC ( he would always capitalize 'MUSIC'), these were the tubes.  Got them from him and that initial blast of that glorious Heerlen midrange just blew my head right off !!!  Whole new ballgame from that point on for me. That guy knew what he was talking about.


EDIT:  My Siemens grey shield E188CC's are scheduled to arrive today (Wednesday).  They're going to have to be up to it because the Cca's have set the bar awfully high.

 

[TK16]

You may have  to burn in the E188CC. My 2 sets needed burnin. They might not sound fabulous at first. The CCa really did not change much for me with use. They sounded fantastic on the first use. Pretty much the only tubes I got that sounded great on day 1. PW might of been the other exception as I suspect most have a lot of miles on them. Don`t remember for sure.

 

[billerb1]

 
You may have  to burn in the E188CC. My 2 sets needed burnin. They might not sound fabulous at first. The CCa really did not change much for me with use. They sounded fantastic on the first use. Pretty much the only tubes I got that sounded great on day 1. PW might of been the other exception as I suspect most have a lot of miles on them. Don`t remember for sure.

 


These only tested at 80%-85% of NOS, so they should be more than burned in.  It's also why I got them so cheap...$146 for the pair.


Also, the absolute fastest shipping time from Europe I've ever experienced.  Shipped from Germany on 1/18 and here today 1/25...7 days.

 

[TK16]

Valvo CCa Heerlen $175 OBO. US seller.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Valvo-CCa-vacuum-tubes-one-pair-7L-code-Heerlen-white-label-6922-E88CC-/322401606650
 
This auction, I linked earlier went $700+.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9x-alte-Rohre-Siemens-amp-Valvo-CCa-E88CC-/401261691978

 

[tvnosaint]

Those don't look to match up too well. 8 amps is pretty low for that money. I wouldn't spend $100 there. One good tube

 

[kolkoo]

Those don't look to match up too well. 8 amps is pretty low for that money. I wouldn't spend $100 there. One good tube

Well without the seller giving us the test conditions 8mA may as well be 100% But as described there we have no idea what grid / plate voltage was used.

 

[tvnosaint]

I'm not as familiar with testing tubes as many of you. But the other tube tests at 11 using the same parameters. That's a significant gap. One of these days I'll get a tester and figure all that stuff out. Prolly not though .

 

[TK16]

I'm not as familiar with testing tubes as many of you. But the other tube tests at 11 using the same parameters. That's a significant gap. One of these days I'll get a tester and figure all that stuff out. Prolly not though .

I`m certain I saw this set recently on ebay from a seller from Germany. I remember the date codes and the seller used ^ symbol as well. Did not understand the 7LB year codes, 7 and 0. Same exact picture of the tester. With the same exact date stamp as this sellers tester from Germany. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/pair-Telefunken-E88CC-tubes-SEL-Lorenz-OEM-CCa-6922-E188cc-CV5385-BWB-sel-/112180545712
 
Here is the link again to the USA seller with the exact same picture of the tester. Same date stamp upper right. Enough for me to think twice about buying. Think the testing numbers were similar if not exactly the same. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Valvo-CCa-vacuum-tubes-one-pair-7L-code-Heerlen-white-label-6922-E88CC-/322401606650

 

[Champ HkGt]

I just acquired a pair of Amperex Orange Globes 1969 - Holland {A-Frame/Dimple Getter} looking for a tube that's more dynamic and has better lows & I have to say, I'm not all that impressed. It's definitely warmer than my Telefunken[196(?) Ulm, Germany] E88CC/6922 but at the cost of clarity & quality, unable to compensate due to lack of dynamics. Obviously I can't speak for ALL Orange Globes because they are all different in design but maybe you can avoid this specific one. Let me know if you find something you end up truly loving because I am searching for something that will deliver for mostly video games and movies sometimes. I am using the latest revision of the LCD 2. What cans are you using and with a Lyr/Lyr 2?

I use Hifiman HE560 with LYR and now change the stock tube (JJ E88CC) to "70's Voskhod 6n1p-ev" just about 28USD per pair. This tube warm my rig up, Bass is better in quality and quantity, Overall sound getting from little bright side to nearly "Neutral". but Dynamic and impact is just the same as stock tube. Good matching for bright rig with cheap price, Love it.

Any way, I'm newbie in tube rolling. This is just my first time I'll try some more tube and I'll update if I find tube that I end up with.

PS. sorry for my English skill.

 

[winders]

So, now I have a headphone amp/powered speaker pre-amp that takes tubes, the Vali 2. I am posting here in the Lyr Tube Rollers thread because the Lyr takes the same type tubes and this thread is far more active than the Vali 2 tube rolling thread. I hope that you guys don't mind!
 
I know that there are a bunch of tubes out there and each type alters the music in its own way. I also know that each person has their own likes and dislikes in the music that they hear, even if they don't know what they are. Obviously, the rest of the equipment used to listen to the music matters too. So, I have gone crazy and bought 8 different tubes to try that span factories in Germany, Holland, Russia, and the USA. 
 
What I am looking for is advice on how a person new to tubes should go about testing tubes to find what they like best. I would imagine that testing both speakers and headphones would complicate things. How long should I burn tubes in before I evaluate them? I have new HD 650 headphones coming tomorrow. How many hours do I need to use them before they are ready to use for testing like this? How do I determine what music to use for the testing? Is it as simple as picking my favorite music? Do I follow Bob's lead from his "6922 Tube Review"?
 
Any and all advice is appreciated! Thank you!

 

[spyder1]

I have to recommend ThurstonX's way of keeping a detailed log of tubes rolled (hours used), and personal likes and dislikes. Write details and personal preferences in a tablet. When I get new tubes I run them for 3.5 hrs as an initial test to see that they sound OK, then either switch them out to a different set, or log hours listened.