Tubular Dude.
It is about time to swap out the Tuber for the Naka-san. It is getting warmer, I set up the AC unit in the front room.
In other tube news.
I got a junk mail from one of my tube shops, Tube Depot. They are having a sale on a selection of NOS tubes. They quote names like Mullard, SED, Tung-Sol, Siemens and Telefunken. All in the celestial sphere of glass heads. The ad touted the warmth and richness and specific attributes of each type and what the can bring to your system.
I am so glad I am not a tube roller. I do not like the idea of changing the sound of a system with different brands of gain devices. I think for a given circuit it should not change very much if at all if you swap out one 12AX7 for another brand. I know things age and very subtle parameters can change, but the device should be tolerant.
It takes a helluva lot of work and time to bias the tubes in my ARC. Not the kind of thing you want to do very often. I also could not afford it. She has 12 tubes.
They wanted over $359 USD for one EL34 tube. If you have a Dynaco ST70 you need 4 matched ones. This tube set is a few hundred dollars more than you would pay for a fully restored example of that Amplifier.
I have only ever replaced tubes that had problems. Though I admit to flipping through a few tubes in my Schitt headphone amp which has one tube in it and I had a handful laying around. Oh and yes they sounded different dammit.
I wonder about having a NOS sale. NOS is new-old-stock. That means never used, factory fresh, and they don't make them anymore. Once gone they are gone. I suppose they are getting expensive to keep around. All these types are manufactured today in fairly good facilities. Though most are made in Russia (bad Putin BAD). They are also made in China and in Eastern Europe. You can get brand new ones.
Supposedly if someone builds an Amplifier it is configured with current tube parameters and should work as intended with current stock.
Oh well it is a hobby and people like to play.














