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primer on buying vintage tubes?

Dear all-

I recently started to tiptoe into tube rolling--replacing the 6922 stock tubes in my headphone amp etc.

I am curious as to why vintage tubes are often preferred to the new ones? Why would older tubes sound better?

And even more pressing, I'm curious about best practices for buying vintage tubes. I recently came across a pair on ebay that were not labeled NOS but the seller did say the had been measured on a tube tester and had 100% emission. If this a safe bet? Is it better to buy NOS? Is it better yet to deal with a vendor like Upscale Audio?

Thanks for any insights! Margot
mcanaday

Showing 6 responses by mcanaday

mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
Thanks Lowrider and everyone. This is all extremely helpful! I am excited to get started.... Cheers, Margot
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
Thanks, Lowrider57. This is so helpful!
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
Thanks Bbroussard! Very kind of you and I may take you up on your offer! cheers!
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
Thanks, guys! And how do you know if you got a bad tube? Is it obvious?

Cheers, Margot
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
Thanks, guys. I had a very good transaction with Brent Jesse, and also a nice exchange with Jim McShane. I did reach out to Upscale Audio (twice) and never heard back.

What about the Tube Museum? Any experience with them, positive or negative?

Thanks! Margot
mcanaday OP
169 posts
 
Also if I am buying from some place like tube depot, which of the options do I want to check (and pay a few bucks more for):

balanced triodes, high gain, low noise, matching.

Well, I know I probably wanted matching and low noise. But the other two?

This is for my Schiit Lyr 2 headphone amp. Thanks!

Margot
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