Oh nooo
are my stock GE gonna die too?!
Are you guys referring to generic Lorenz tubes, or the ones that were/are actually sought after, i.e. made in Stuttgart Germany? Have a batch of Stuttgarts surfaced? If so, bag those babies and profit!
Yes, most tube users are using vintage tubes...stuff made mostly from the 40's through the 70's. They're old, and when they're gone, they're gone which is why prices keep going up. The good news is there's certainly manufacturers of tubes today. Nobody would manufacture it for audiophile use, but in certain parts of the world tubes are still needed for industrial electronics that are relatively old (including military hardware such as old used Soviet planes, ships, radar systems, and communications/telecom equipment that wind up on the auction block to smaller countries on the cheap.) But also there's a much bigger tube market out there for the music production industry...guitar amps, mic amps, mixing boards, etc. I think most if not all new production tubes are made by New Sensor under various brands, Electro-Harmonix, Sovtek, Tesla, etc. JJ in SK also makes current production tubes.
Audiophiles will rave how new production tubes are vastly inferior to vintage tubes, but some of the new ones sound as good as mid-priced old ones. The really special old ones will never exist again though. Also NOS is typically more reliable despite age since new ones are made for effect rather than necessity. It's sold to musicians and audiophiles largely. The old ones had to work since a lot of the old ones were meant for industrial (telecom) and military (guidance, radar/tracking, navigation, communications, avionics, etc.) use. They had to withstand extreme shock and the like. The new ones do not.
There are three stock options with Lyr. The Russian tubes are vintage, and the "stock" GE tubes are vintage (I believe they were meant for TVs in the 70's.) The "JJ" option with Lyr is new production from JJ Electronics.
Either way, both HD650 and HD800 sound fantastic on the Lyr with some nice tubesThere's certainly better amps out there for both of them, but darned if it doesn't sound great on Lyr....it's got all the basics covered.
I think might rather stay with solid state then. I'm only 15 but I'm looking far into the future, 50 years or so, and I doubt there will still be an ample supply of tubes at that time, so I don't want to get too settled in to the usage of tubes. But, then again, what about CDs and vinyl (and my old reel tape deck)? So maybe that logic isn't the best, but I think CDs and vinyl will be around (i.e. servicable in case something breaks, new cart/styli, etc) longer than vintage tubes will be.
Dude, you should just hope you have most of your hearing in 50 years!!jk
I think might rather stay with solid state then. I'm only 15 but I'm looking far into the future, 50 years or so, and I doubt there will still be an ample supply of tubes at that time, so I don't want to get too settled in to the usage of tubes. But, then again, what about CDs and vinyl (and my old reel tape deck)? So maybe that logic isn't the best, but I think CDs and vinyl will be around (i.e. servicable in case something breaks, new cart/styli, etc) longer than vintage tubes will be.
"Officially" PCC88 isn't a 6DJ8....therefore it's not the official tube. Unofficially, Lyr, like most 6DJ8 driver units is self biasing, and it works just fine, ideally the tube lasts even longer because you're running it at lower voltage. Schiit's official stance is that they can't guarantee that the amp will perform to it's full sound quality with PCC88 tubes. But for the tubes that are known to sound good...they indeed sound good. I had the same fear until I tried it.
....
Schiit Lyr with the HD650 is pretty amazing!
I'm really lovin' it
