Why are older tubes so much sought after

A great question and very interesting answers above.

In my experience of NOS in new equipment the results have not been that great. I have found in the valves I mainly used (power tubes 6550,KT88,and 12AX7,12AU7,ECC81,ECC82) the older valves never had the clarity in the highs or the low noise floor or transparency.

The last time I used some NOS Brimar and Jan philips in a very high end preamp they were very rolled off, dark and fat sounding, even a little metalic. The new valves with gold pins where much cleaner, extended and detailed in comparison. Maybe this is very valve dependent.

I had the same experience with Svetlana 6550C power tubes. I found the 6550c from Svetlana to be the best 6550 I could find, leaving the others sounding murky.

I can understand that maybe the new old stock valves work well in older equipment or as a tone control.

By the time these NOS tubes have run out, either better technology would have appeared and make tubes a thing of the past for good, or electricity will be so expensive that no one will be able to afford to run dreadfully inefficient technologies like tubes without their own hydro power station!

In the world of audiophilia nothing is clear it seems. Many opinions and experiences with many variations of equipment all needing to addressed differently.

The only thing we can be sure of is some types of NOS are better than new versions and others are worse due to various factors.

A thread should be started stating the valve type and its number plus variants as NOS and newly manufactured valves. Just as a guide to their character. Something like the guy at Humble hifi has done with caps.

Out of interest I would love to know which age group you guys are from. Say over 30/ over 40/over 50/over 60s etc. I only say this because I am sure this is the last generation that has this knowledge or even cares!

I have been to many Hifi shows and shops and I dont see any teenagers there.

So maybe there will be many NOS valves left soon as no one will be left to buy them! I got into this hobby as a kid and grew up with it as I am sure most of you did. It seems to be only the stubborn few left.

All the kids have and will have small digital set ups. They probably wont be very interested in 2 channel sound at all in the home.

It would be a shame to loose all these experiences and knowledge for good dont you think? All those great records and recordings form a bygone era never to be heard as intended again.

Wouldnt it be great to catalogue them? Even just so someone can simulate the effect in the digital domain as physical modeling sometime in the future. This is where its all going. Its cheaper and who knows, probably just as good.

Never say never.

Larryi,

I would agree with you. Manufacturers need a constant supply of reliable tubes that can be bought in bulk for a reasonable price.

I guess it is up to the individual to search and test which selection of tubes works best in whatever equipment. Though this can be tedious. I spent a lot of time and money trying out valves that were unsatisfactory. Though I felt good when I finally found the best combination.

I doubt very much that a good quality valve cannot be made today. Manufacturing techniques are far more advanced now. Unfortunately we are such a small market to cater for that it probably isnt worth tooling up for these days. Even so, we still run into the problem of which ones to remanufacture? Imagine remaking the bad sounding ones!

As someone said the laws of physics have not changed (yet! Maybe CERN will change this) so in theory performance can be copied or even bettered. Who knows? We live in the age of information. Everything we need is out there somewhere.

Wouldnt it be great if the equipment just worked at its finest performance level, rather than us wasting time listening to tubes. We could be listening to music or dealing with things of real importance like which cable sounds best? Aaagggg!

Larryi,
sadly its a sign that this technology has become a bit of a dinosaur with only the select few interested. Although I see a few tube docking stations for ipods!

I know many here will disagree here, but in my experience other technologies, especially in power amplifiers, have moved so far ahead in terms of what you get for your money vs performance, and without the insecurities of knowing whether you have the best tubes from the 1950s or not.

The small magical details that we obsess over like this tube or that NOS tube bringing out extra detail here or there, can be had at the flick of a button on a remote control now without even reaching for a screw driver.

I have been trying out some of these latest generation of digital and switching amps for a while now. Some amps have room correction and a host of toys built in. The various filter settings are very powerful and have similar effects to tube rolling.

Juanpablocuervo,

I have had the same experience with 12au7.

Fantastic film. I have not seen that one before. Notice all the internal parts are selected and moved by hand, and not a rubber glove to be seen. All the salt from sweaty hands carefully preserved inside.

I will go for new valves I think...

Hi Trelja,

I would agree with sirspeedy, you need to find the right balance for a specific set up. But I think this takes a great deal of experience, time and cash.

I listen to a wide range of musical styles. From classical orchestral music and small scale instrumental music though to rock and electronic music. This is the main reason I dont go for old tubes and except in a few critical areas dont use them at all now.

My main use for tubes are in mic preamps and vintage mics these days where I am looking for color. My hifi is tuned to be neutral.

I have never found any tube to work well in a full range system although wonderful in bandwidth limited set ups like Quads etc or for a specific type of music normally acoustic small scale with or without voice.

Eldartford,

my point exactly.