I've had very few tubes fail over the years, and 2 were new (a Sovtek KT88 and a new Gold Lion rectifier)...the other was a JAN Phillips 12AT7 that was replaced by thetubestore. All my piles of NOS GEs, Sylvania "Chrome Domes," etc., have performed perfectly...including those abused in tube guitar amps as well as hifi gear. I'd say tubes generally have been pretty damn reliable over the last 50 years or so I've been using 'em.
NOS Tubes - Ecstasy or Agony
I have been running tube amps for many years and have built a number of SETs and other tube amps, kit's mostly. My main power tubes have been 2A3's and 300bs and I have used mostly new manufacture tubes including JJ's and EML 300b's (great tube btw). I did use NOS driver tubes and headphone amp tubes. Never really had a problem.
I just transitioned to a Don Sach's 6sn7 based preamp and McCormack SS power amp. The preamp is very nice and sounds great with Shugang tubes. Of course, I wanted to try some NOS tubes, went online and did my research. Now the DS2 is a great preamp, the drawback is it uses 4 6sn7s and so I need to get pairs. Would have love to get my hands on the Dehavilland, uses one tube!
First Pair - I ordered some Sylvania's from TC Tubes. Advertised as 50's vintage, ,when I received them they were marked 60's. Hmmm. So I tried them and they sounded pretty darn good except after a couple hours one of them developed a high pitched hum, like a florescent bulb. So I sent them back.
Second Pair - ordered from Brent Jesse - has a good rep online and a really informative website. Received them and one was dead on arrival, they were also clearly of different construction. So they are going back.
Next will try Andy at Vintage Tubes Services, he also has a solid reputation so hopefully I can get something that works.
I am curious what experiences others have had. Maybe its COVID, or are these dealers just unreliable, or is just 6sn7's? Really thought I could just buy some NOS tubes and experiment, I can't even get two to work.
I don't really want to disparage these dealers but I do think all the claims of testing are maybe overblown.
I just transitioned to a Don Sach's 6sn7 based preamp and McCormack SS power amp. The preamp is very nice and sounds great with Shugang tubes. Of course, I wanted to try some NOS tubes, went online and did my research. Now the DS2 is a great preamp, the drawback is it uses 4 6sn7s and so I need to get pairs. Would have love to get my hands on the Dehavilland, uses one tube!
First Pair - I ordered some Sylvania's from TC Tubes. Advertised as 50's vintage, ,when I received them they were marked 60's. Hmmm. So I tried them and they sounded pretty darn good except after a couple hours one of them developed a high pitched hum, like a florescent bulb. So I sent them back.
Second Pair - ordered from Brent Jesse - has a good rep online and a really informative website. Received them and one was dead on arrival, they were also clearly of different construction. So they are going back.
Next will try Andy at Vintage Tubes Services, he also has a solid reputation so hopefully I can get something that works.
I am curious what experiences others have had. Maybe its COVID, or are these dealers just unreliable, or is just 6sn7's? Really thought I could just buy some NOS tubes and experiment, I can't even get two to work.
I don't really want to disparage these dealers but I do think all the claims of testing are maybe overblown.