In the '90s I had a couple of amps that used 6550s and I remember Cary was putting them out with and selling replacement Svetlantas (first the Bs and then Cs). I bought eight Tung Sol 6550s that were theoretically NOS from Andy in Michigan and they cost what I considered back than to be an arm an a leg, but they really didn't do anything that I thought was way better than the Svetlantas that I had been using.
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.
Showing 2 responses by immatthewj
Referring to what @john_tracy typed above, the second time I retubed my V12 I went with a couple of sextets of EL34s that Jim McShane sold me. It took a while to get them, and every couple of days he would send me an email telling me how the matching was going. I think that was sometime in '20. I set the bias and for the longest time it stayed where I set it on both sides. On the other hand, the first time I retubed that amp in 2018, I bought two sex tets from Viva and they arrived quite quickly. So I don't know if they keep a lot of tubes properly burned in and matched, or if they don't put the time into matching them that Jim did. I do remember the biases doing some goofy things with that batch of tubes. |