Where do you guys buy replacement tubes?

AvguyGeorge: I recently had a somewhat nonproductive query with Kevin at Upscale in regard to driver and output tubes for my Audion Silver Night 300b amp. I wouldn't say that he was snooty, just that he may be receiving more queries than he can handle (he is probably the only one who answers our questions). He did not seem to be familiar with my amp, which is understandable, and had no "solid" recommendations, though I did get the impression that he took the time to search Audio Asylum and the web for info (which I had already done). The only problem (and it was a small one) that I had was that I twice requested the selling price of his Western Electric 300B tubes, and was eventually told to check the website for prices. Well, unless I missed something he does not have any 300B tubes listed at his site, so I just moved on and purchased tubes to try out from ATSI, and ones that I could identify as being "genuine" from the photos on Ebay auctions. He had some old production 6922's that I would have liked to try, but there was something at his website about not wanting to take credit cards and I did not feel like waiting for a snail mail transaction (this was my choice). I live less than an hours drive from his home/shop and may just make an appointment to pick up the tubes in the future, but for right now am not able to make such a long drive. I will not pass judgment from this one encounter and have decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. He may have very well missed my request for pricing on the WE's as my emails are as lengthy as my posts at this site. I am also not interested in purchasing the WE's until I decide if I will stick with this amp and was up front about it. The price would have been nice though because if I decide to keep the amp I will go with Western Electric's for their sound as well as their longevity which some claim can be as high as 40,000 hours. Right now I have a pair of "specially selected" Svetlana 300B's on the way, which if they work out, I will be noting my source for them in the future. The dealer works directly with Svetlana and receives their best production stock. Oh, and I have never come up with Vintage Tube Services before on any of my web searches and will check them out on your reccomendations. In regard to Ebay, I see a lot of stuff that doesn't look right to me in the photos. Like, Amperex tubes that have a red cast to where the pins penetrate the glass and stuff like that. I don't know that much about tubes other than the ones that I have used in the past and these may just be different productions, though they sure look like relabled Tesla's to me.

AV: I hear you and don't disagree as that easily could have been my take on the situation as well. But as of yet I am still undecided and as mentioned above it's not the only game in town as I had no difficulty locating quality NOS tubes at fair prices.

I would like to add that the order that I placed with ATSI went smoothly and that the tubes were well packed and promptly shipped (they sound good too). I also made an Ebay purchase from a dealer (user name Roytang) that is new to Ebay and as of today has 15 positive feedbacks. Roy is located in Hong Kong and accepts PayPal. The tubes were excellent NOS Sylvania Gold 5687's (and sound really good as well), they arrived almost as quickly as my domestic (continental USA) purchases. Also thank you Kevin, for taking time to comment (I once had a job with the phone company where I took up to 115 phone calls a day and know where you are coming from).

Hello again:

I would like to add another source that I used recently for Svetlana 300B tubes which is (http://conusaudio.com). The tubes are specially selected stock (not branded for export) that the dealer received directly from Svetlana and they come with an 180 day warranty. For those of you that are concerned with the past reliablity issue of Svetlana tubes (as I was) there is a brief summary at the website of what went wrong during the production period in which "those" tubes were manufactured and it is a must read, IMO. I now have over 100 hours on the Svetlana's and they are excellent in my setup, smooth and "natural" sounding, yet detailed (very musical). Conus carries other tubes as well and Euguene, the owner, has been a pleasure to deal with.