2. amps-preamps
  3. 193029-140513

For Tube Folks...

Hi All,

I am rather new to tube gear and recently purchased a 'NOS' GE 6550 Power Tube. 

 

A. It was advertised as:  "New old stock in original or OEM box. A nice USA tube that will outperform any current production 6550 made. An excellent lot, matched to within 5 percent and then aged in a hi-fi shop demo unit. Very low hours, burn-in time only, and the performance has been verified by us..."

B. The seller also sells used GE6550 tubes that are advertised as: "Light use, tested good with good match, and white box..."

 

The large black spot on the glass where it GE is etched makes wonder how many hours of usage this tube has seen...

My question -  Within reasonable certainty, is this tube is NOS or is it USED?  

Thanks in advance for any clarity.

 

 

inagroove

Showing 1 response by armstrod

armstrod
619 posts
 

@carlsbad2 has it correct. The only way NOS status can be trusted is if the seller purchased the tubes new directly from the manufacturer AND you trust the seller is telling the truth, as it's unlikely they have the invoice from the manufacturer to prove it. The most that can be said about any tube is that it "tests as new" and even then only on a recently calibrated tester and from a trusted vendor.

As for myself, I'll only buy recently tested tubes from sellers with good reputations, and even then I'll test them before I use them both to verify their test data and to make sure they didn't get damaged in shipping. Or I buy cheap lots of untested tubes and weed out the bad ones. I'm found some gems that way.

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