The Reference 6J5 Thread (L63, 6C5, 12J5, 6P5, etc.)

[leftside]

Visseaux family:

 

[leftside]

And their bigger brothers:

 

[jonathan c]

And their bigger brothers:

They look like rival gangs: the Tubes and the Rubes from Left Side Story ....

 

[leftside]

They look like rival gangs: the Tubes and the Rubes from Left Side Story ....

I wouldn't mess with the metal tubes

 

[leftside]

A few 6C5 tubes will the silver paint. As a Few others have mentioned, these are great tubes. Come up for sale cheaply but some patience is required.

 

[mordy]

At the present time I am exploring different 6V and 12V tubes of the 6C/J5 families backed up by a sextet of Melz 6N12S. The Melz tubes have exceptional clarity and instument separation.

A couple of observations: The internal construction of the 6J5GT tubes varies considerably, even from the same make.
There seems to be much more variation in the internal construction than other tube families I have tried.

I am using a Glenn OTL amp that can accomodate 12V tubes. One of the arguments for an amp that can use 12V tubes is that the 12V versions often are much less expensive than the 6V versions of the same tube. I was under the impression that a 12V version of a 6V tube from the same maker would sound the same, but I am finding that this is not the case at all. Many of the 12V version tubes have their individual sound compared to the 6V versions.
Perhaps this can be attributed to different internal construction - have to see if I can find something that has the same internal construction in 6 and 12V and from the same time period (not sure if I can accomplish this).

 

[raindownthunda]

I've been giving these "Italian RCA" ATES 6J5GT a go for the past few days.. From what I can tell, these are very similar sounding to the RCA 6J5 in all the best ways. Really enjoying them so far with the Chatham 6as7g (yesterday) and Chatham 6080WB currently in the tower-o-crack.

Here is a bit of information I found while researching ATES/RCA collaboration:
"The company ATES was established in 1959 in Italy. The production started with the cooperation of RCA which was one of the major shareholders of ATES. Tubes made in the L’Aquila plant came out with the double marking RCA – ATES and were sold through RCA commercial channels. When, in the late sixties, RCA abandoned this market segment in Italy, Marconi bought the plant."

Italian born tubes in RCA clothing:

 

[mordy]

Anybody tried these "Made In Holland" tubes?

Well, I was intrigued by these tubes - could they possibly have been made by Mullard-Philips? After some research,
however, my conclusion is that they are Russian 6S2S NEVS tubes - look at this picture:

I don't have any of the 6S2S these tubes - does anybody have experience with them?

 

[Slade01]

Anybody tried these "Made In Holland" tubes?


Well, I was intrigued by these tubes - could they possibly have been made by Mullard-Philips? After some research,
however, my conclusion is that they are Russian 6S2S NEVS tubes - look at this picture:


I don't have any of the 6S2S these tubes - does anybody have experience with them?

I agree with you. I did the same research - I came across a pair of CEI "Made In Japan" 6J5s on ebay and they also look identical to the Nevs 6S2S. As such the pair was selling for 40 dollars. The NEVS pair (same as your picture) was 15.

If they are like the Pinnacle 6J5s, @bcowen has them and likes them for certain genres I believe.

 

[mordy]

I agree with you. I did the same research - I came across a pair of CEI "Made In Japan" 6J5s on ebay and they also look identical to the Nevs 6S2S. As such the pair was selling for 40 dollars. The NEVS pair (same as your picture) was 15.

If they are like the Pinnacle 6J5s, @bcowen has them and likes them for certain genres I believe.

Pinnacle was a rebrander that often used Russian tubes so this is a good possibility.
It seems a little strange to me that there are fakes of these tubes which usually are not so much in demand and not super expensive.

 

[maxpudding]

I have the metal base 6S2S, sounds great when paired with warm power tubes

 

[Slade01]

Pinnacle was a rebrander that often used Russian tubes so this is a good possibility.
It seems a little strange to me that there are fakes of these tubes which usually are not so much in demand and not super expensive.

Very true. I was surprised, as well. I was hoping they were not fakes also, was curious to see what types of 6J5s came out of Japan if any as well, as I have had surprising tubes made from there with other tube types. But Russians - even here they still use a bottom saucer getter...so its still the key give away. I chalk it up to some company having too much stock and trying to sell it off anyway they can.

 

[mordy]

I have the metal base 6S2S, sounds great when paired with warm power tubes

So far I have found two Russian factories that made the 6S2S - NEVS /Novosibirsk and Fonon (Foton?)

 

[maxpudding]

So far I have found two Russian factories that made the 6S2S - NEVS /Novosibirsk and Fonon (Foton?)

The metal base 6S2Ss that I have were manufactured by NEVS, and if the seller is correct, they were made in 1952/53

 

[Marutks]

It seems a little strange to me that there are fakes of these tubes which usually are not so much in demand and not super expensive.

I think they were made for export purposes and "made in Holland" was stamped on them to avoid import restrictions (from USSR).