The future of Tubes

Low demand is a factor(so many now are willing to settle for the mediocre), but the desire/motivation to produce a quality product is another. Anything of quality is going to cost you through the nose nowdays, and few take the time or make the effort to turn out excellence. There are quality tubes manufactured that compare with the NOS "Grails", but they cost. ie: (http://thetubestore.com/eat.html) (http://www.elusivedisc.com/products.asp?dept=1469) (http://www.tubedepot.com/we-300b.html) Click on "tubes" on this site: (http://www.kraudio.com/)

I think that the low demand for tubes today makes it economically unattractive for manufacturers to spend the money to develop tubes as good as the great NOS preamp tubes.

It still could happen though. I imagine there are folks in Russia and China working on it and they could come up with the magic formula.

Current production Gold Lion KT 88 output tubes are considered to sound better than many NOS tubes. Also there are people who prefer current production preamp tubes to NOS.

I suspected low demand was the cause. Thanks both of you for the clarification (and links)..

New Old Stock (NOS) tubes were built for quality, durability, and reliability. Not only used in audio equipment but in numerous industrial applications which required a zero-tolerance for failure. For example, both the US and Russian space ventures at the time required the use of tubes for computers, communications, navigation, and rocketry. The first computer-guided missile systems were all tube-based circuitry. The entire nation, civilian and military, relied on tubes that far surpassed the quality of modern production tubes. That legacy is the stuff that NOS tubes provide. An affordable modern equivalent of the same build quality is probably only possible in Asia with their lower production costs and still the retail consumer price would be equal to or greater than those expensive NOS tubes we crave. We are indeed fortunate to have a substantial quantity of NOS tubes to rely on for our audio equipment.

the magic formula from some clever pirates would appear to be making new tubes masquerading as NOS. its happening for sure.

Well if someone would possibly win a $500,000,000 lottery and then, approach New Sensor and pay them to manufacture something to NOS standards.....

Funny thing though- I have been shopping for various 12v pre tubes, and 6SN7 tubes and have noticed that NOS can be had for less ( or a bit more money ) than current production tubes. So I'm thinking " might as well buy NOS " Even a not so desired NOS sounds better to my ears than current production tubes. I just wonder if the folks manufacturing the tubes notice their is not much of a price difference. But I suppose they figure eventually the NOS will run out and they will be the only game in town. Maybe when that happens as of us NOS lovers will pool our money together and pay these folks to crank out a better tube. But then again, maybe we will lower our standard.

Ok, sorry for stealing the thread, but this is kind of related. just got a quick question.....

Don't want to get Tung-Sol lovers all hot and bothered. But I have a few NOS 6550 tubes laying around that I might unload. I see them still on ebay. Are they getting less in quantity or should I hold off for a year or so?

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