Thanks for this Aric! Will remain in contact.
Electro-Harmonix/New Sensor bad news and a saving grace...
Hello All! There's been some recent developments regarding the E.H./New Sensor brand of tubes (which includes Tung Sol, E.H., Genalex Gold Lion, Svetlana, Mullard and Sovtek). This is likely what we all expected, but it was officially announced today by Electro-Harmonix, that Russia has banned 200 exports which will include vacuum tubes from same country until the end of 2022. While this is bad news for buyers that like these brands (and of course they are the ONLY place where KT120s, KT150s, and KT170s are made) that there ARE still EXCELLENT choices for those looking for "bang for the buck" tube options. That said, any high end vacuum tubes are not on this list. For anyone that wants excellent high end tubes the options are the premium versions by Emission Labs, Linlai, Elrog and PsVane. For those wondering about the good budget oriented options, I will be stocking Valve Art, TAD, PsVane, Linlai, JJ (when available again) and NOS options for the 6SN7 variants- mostly CBS/Hytron, which are the best NOS tubes at the same price point as the new production Tung Sols. Note that I will ONLY be stocking these tubes for sale with my amps and preamps. I wanted to put this out there to let anyone who may be skeptical about finding replacements for their tube amp or preamp, know that I am actively tackling making sure that we still have options. Thanks for the bandwidth and I hope all are well! Best regards, Aric Kimball- Aric Audio Systems.
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@j-wall I know, it's quite the lion's share of brands! When I was trying to think of options to use, each of those brands came to mind until I realized they were all coming from the same Reflektor plant in Russia. Thankfully Linlai is serious about being a big name, and between them and PsVane, they really do have a lot of choices between tube types. Of course, we'll have to see what happens once the demand really hits them, but man do I have my fingers crossed. |
@rocray Thanks for the kind words! Indeed, the Linlai tubes are the real deal and sound phenomenal! I've now tried various tubes from them throughout their three tiers (Hi-Fi, DG and Elite) and out of a dozen pairs of tubes consisting of 2A3s, 6SN7s, 5U4Gs, and 845s, I have have nothing but solid performance out of them. No microphonics, no ticks, no pops, and all bias right up to a matched level between pairs. |