[bcowen]

Christ! My dad had a pair of Radio-Shack (Realistic [tm]) cans like that. He would NOT let me touch them when I was 5-10 years old. My current cans would blow his mind.

That was just a pic off the net. What's hilarious is a couple days after I posted that, one of my supervisors walked into my office and handed me a me a pair of RatShack 'phones that he'd picked up at a flea market. Don't think they're the Novas but didn't look that closely at them. Said "I know you're into the headphone stuff, and these were so cheap I couldn't resist." I was LMAO. They're still in the trunk of my car....guess I need to grab them and see if they even still work. Externally they're in decent shape other than smelling musty. With a good cleanup, there's a good chance they'll be better than my son's Beats.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

Now, boys and girls, let's open our Soviet History books to the period at the end of Stalin. "Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at the Kuntsevo Dacha aged 74 after suffering a stroke."

Hmmm. Stalin died in 1953. Foton Tubes from 1953 and before having better workmanship that those made 5 years (Or "5-year-plan") after the Iron Fist died in his glove.
Maybe Soviet Workers no longer feared a Gulag visit for poor soldering skills? Maybe the quality of Vodka in Novosibirsk got better?

When we play with Geopolitical actors, timing and context help us to understand. I would be interested in the views of Old Deaf Donkey...

I would not know the relationship between Stalin's death and quality of soldering. What was happenning periodically was the relaxing of standards with objective to make production simpler and cheaper. Hence inferior materials etc. in the whole chain. Talking about one particular factory, it may have been enough for a diligent head of quality assurance unit to retire or get promoted away. Structurally, in 1953 the Soviets put key emphasis on agriculture, so fellows with expertise in soldering tube pins could have been sent to grow corn in kolkhozes. Remember also that Foton was created by evacuating an existing factory in Fryazino next to Moscow to Tashkent during the WWII. Perhaps in 1953 the original qualified staff were allowed to return to Moscow (Fryazino factory was turned into a research facility at that time and produced tubes for Sputnik control, among other), and young industrious uzbeks were put to soldering the pins at Foton.

 

[bcowen]

I would not know the relationship between Stalin's death and quality of soldering. What was happenning periodically was the relaxing of standards with objective to make production simpler and cheaper. Hence inferior materials etc. in the whole chain. Talking about one particular factory, it may have been enough for a diligent head of quality assurance unit to retire or get promoted away. Structurally, in 1953 the Soviets put key emphasis on agriculture, so fellows with expertise in soldering tube pins could have been sent to grow corn in kolkhozes. Remember also that Foton was created by evacuating an existing factory in Fryazino next to Moscow to Tashkent during the WWII. Perhaps in 1953 the original qualified staff were allowed to return to Moscow (Fryazino factory was turned into a research facility at that time and produced tubes for Sputnik control, among other), and young industrious uzbeks were put to soldering the pins at Foton.

I guess it would be reasonable to assume they didn't have any robotic pin soldering machines back then.

 

[Robert Padgett]

I would not know the relationship between Stalin's death and quality of soldering. What was happenning periodically was the relaxing of standards with objective to make production simpler and cheaper. Hence inferior materials etc. in the whole chain. Talking about one particular factory, it may have been enough for a diligent head of quality assurance unit to retire or get promoted away. Structurally, in 1953 the Soviets put key emphasis on agriculture, so fellows with expertise in soldering tube pins could have been sent to grow corn in kolkhozes. Remember also that Foton was created by evacuating an existing factory in Fryazino next to Moscow to Tashkent during the WWII. Perhaps in 1953 the original qualified staff were allowed to return to Moscow (Fryazino factory was turned into a research facility at that time and produced tubes for Sputnik control, among other), and young industrious uzbeks were put to soldering the pins at Foton.

Thanks, I just see the change of leadership as an event which may have affected quality across many industries.

 

[bcowen]

Christ! My dad had a pair of Radio-Shack (Realistic [tm]) cans like that. He would NOT let me touch them when I was 5-10 years old. My current cans would blow his mind.

LOL! It was a pair of Nova 40's he got me. These will need a serious Lysol session before they go on my head though. Not like I'm a germ-a-phobe or anything, but I do have limits.

 

[TK16]

LOL! It was a pair of Nova 40's he got me. These will need a serious Lysol session before they go on my head though. Not like I'm a germ-a-phobe or anything, but I do have limits.

Didn't know you were interested in pre WW2 stuff, otherwise I might of sent you the first working prototype of the the telephone iI snagged on Ebay. 5,000 bucks for 2 paper cups with string attached is a solid investment imho.

 

[bcowen]

Didn't know you were interested in pre WW2 stuff, otherwise I might of sent you the first working prototype of the the telephone iI snagged on Ebay. 5,000 bucks for 2 paper cups with string attached is a solid investment imho.

If you can send me a pic, I might be interested. Depends mostly on the quality of the carpet in the photo though.

 

[bcowen]

Hey!!!! These things aren't half bad! But that's just an alternative way of saying they aren't half good. If you've ever wondered whether Neil Young could be an ear bleeder via a lossy MP3, you need wonder no longer. Let's just say that we've come a long, long way with headphones since the time these might have been considered decent.

 

[TK16]

Hey!!!! These things aren't half bad! But that's just an alternative way of saying they aren't half good. If you've ever wondered whether Neil Young could be an ear bleeder via a lossy MP3, you need wonder no longer. Let's just say that we've come a long, long way with headphones since the time these might have been considered decent.

You just get that Aune? What tube is in it? Definitely a 9 pinner.

 

[bcowen]

You just get that Aune? What tube is in it? Definitely a 9 pinner.

Yup and yup. $70 on Ebay. It comes with a 6922, but that's a WE 396A in it right now. The WE sounds better than the RCA-labeled Siemens I first tried, but that's the extent of my rolling at this point. Too little time, too many toys...

 

[TK16]

Yup and yup. $70 on Ebay. It comes with a 6922, but that's a WE 396A in it right now. The WE sounds better than the RCA-labeled Siemens I first tried, but that's the extent of my rolling at this point. Too little time, too many toys...

The WE was my first non ECC88 variant I tried. Was hooked on adapter tubes mostly since. Tube has a really warm sound signature, very seductive. In a non sexual way. Mostly.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

I guess it would be reasonable to assume they didn't have any robotic pin soldering machines back then.

Well. I did not imply they were soldering the pins manually at Foton . In 1936 the factory in Fryazino (as well as Svetlana in Leningrad) received technology and equipment from RCA for producing the metal bottle tubes, I assume - octals. In 1950ties, at Foton in Tashkent still the same equipment, evacuated from Fryazino in 1941, may have been used for soldering the pins on the octal tubes with glass envelope. In the late 1950ties at Foton they, anyone's guess: (i) started using inferior solder when the state standard of 1950 changed; (ii) introduced new, Soviet made equipment as the old RCA worn out; (iii) changed the staff operating the equipment and/or controlling quality; (iv) any combination of the previous 3.

 

[Paladin79]

Well. I did not imply they were soldering the pins manually at Foton . In 1936 the factory in Fryazino (as well as Svetlana in Leningrad) received technology and equipment from RCA for producing the metal bottle tubes, I assume - octals. In 1950ties, at Foton in Tashkent still the same equipment, evacuated from Fryazino in 1941, may have been used for soldering the pins on the octal tubes with glass envelope. In the late 1950ties at Foton they, anyone's guess: (i) started using inferior solder when the state standard of 1950 changed; (ii) introduced new, Soviet made equipment as the old RCA worn out; (iii) changed the staff operating the equipment and/or controlling quality; (iv) any combination of the previous 3.

fascinating information. I cannot imagine they knew at the time that the tubes would still be in use thirty years later, or even sixty years.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

fascinating information. I cannot imagine they knew at the time that the tubes would still be in use thirty years later, or even sixty years.

No one knows anything - all electronic industry was secret in the Soviet, their archives were run by the KGB and all documentation was meticulously destroyed (shredded AND burned) once it had no actual use anymore. Only memories of the living participants that have been recorded after 1990 remain.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

Thanks, I just see the change of leadership as an event which may have affected quality across many industries.

I do not know how the change of political leadership influences the quality of soldering; another reason that I have not mentioned elswhere is that in the mid-1950ties the Soviets finally started manufacturing miniatiure tubes (noval) (they failed miserably in achieving functional quality of their own models in the late 30ties), so that their interest in the octals (and btw loctals which the Soviets adopted in 1946 - I still have to see one, as well as loctals produced by Philips and Mullard!) must have decreased in the second half of the 1950ties.