Re: NOS better than modern tubes?

Posted by Rob Mercure (A) on August 7, 2005 at 04:32:24

In Reply to: NOS better than modern tubes? posted by Hogio on August 7, 2005 at 04:02:14:

Quick answers. There are truly good current production audio tubes being made at present but this is a recent phenomena. Metal to glass vacuum seals were prefected almost a century ago and the "innards" of a vacuum tube do not deteriorate with age - only the external pins/caps - as long as these are clean and not horribly corroded the tube insides should be good (assuming no wear or physical abuse) - and bases/pins and caps can often be replaced. Thermionic technology was very mature by the late 194s early 1950s so most of the valves by that point are "state of the art" and that "state" really doesn't seem to have changed at all. Current production tubes are variations on "classic" (oooh, how I cringe at my use of that overused term)designs and no new types are being produced as best I can tell.

What really made NOS types superior, in general, was standardization and competition. The EIAA/RMA maintained a registry of tube types and the manufacturer originally producing a type "usually" registered it. This produced a standard by which each manufacturer's variation of this type was compared so the competition was to improve noise, reliability, etc..

Since EIAA stopped fooling with tubes after the demise of the USA tube industry manufacturers have had a field day issuing "alphabet soup" variations of tubes. Instead of the A,B, and C (don't remember ever seeing a D in NOS manufacturing) "improvements" in a type - and ruggedization designations such as "W" and "Y" tube rebranders/wholesalers such as Excessive Harmonix, Gravey Tubes and Sovwreck just stuck any suffix they created onto the end of the tube number - often to "redesignate" a totally different tube than the original type designation - EH's issuance of a "7591" which was a "6L6ish" tube comes to mind as does GT's issuance of a "5881ish" tube for a 6V6 (and I still avoid purchasing tubes from these fraud perpetrators). But now, due primarily to "outing" of bad products and fraudulent rebranding, competition has resulted in new issuances of "classic" (ouch) designs by manufacturers such as JJ and Svetlana (the real "winged C" Svet - not Sovwrecks hijacking of a brand name -hmm, did my "fraud detector" go off again?).

Rob

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - NOS better than modern tubes? - Hogio 04:02:14 08/07/05 (23)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Hogio 13:09:18 08/09/05 (1)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - audiquattro 09:00:51 08/10/05 (0)

power = new , preamp = nos - Powercntrl 04:44:41 08/08/05 (2)

Re: power = new , preamp = nos - Rob Mercure 06:11:34 08/08/05 (1)

Re: power = new , preamp = nos - Powercntrl 04:46:41 08/09/05 (0)

Are NOS tube better than new production? - MIchael Samra 16:36:17 08/07/05 (0)

Variety is the spice of NOS - AMSTAFF 16:12:01 08/07/05 (0)

No doubt,, best NOS are best to date - paul_s 12:15:07 08/07/05 (0)

No - not necessarily (n t) - Jim Dowdy 12:03:41 08/07/05 (0)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Jim McShane 09:43:33 08/07/05 (4)

What about ... - Blue Bull 11:35:36 08/07/05 (3)

It depends on the application - romandoc 14:52:29 08/07/05 (0)

Re: What about ... - Jimmy 13:19:24 08/07/05 (0)

Re: What about ... - Eli Duttman 12:21:28 08/07/05 (0)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Eli Duttman 08:53:49 08/07/05 (0)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - sgmlaw 06:56:36 08/07/05 (0)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes especially for home type amps? - Jimmy 05:48:26 08/07/05 (2)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes especially for home type amps? - Rob Mercure 06:39:23 08/07/05 (1)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes especially for home type amps? - Jimmy 08:28:24 08/07/05 (0)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Rob Mercure 04:32:24 08/07/05 (3)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Jim McShane 09:34:12 08/07/05 (0)

Just a couple of minor points. - Mark Kelly 05:16:21 08/07/05 (1)

Re: Just a couple of minor points. - Rob Mercure 07:21:55 08/07/05 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Rob Mercure 04:32:24 08/07/05 (3)

Re: NOS better than modern tubes? - Jim McShane 09:34:12 08/07/05 (0)

Just a couple of minor points. - Mark Kelly 05:16:21 08/07/05 (1)

Re: Just a couple of minor points. - Rob Mercure 07:21:55 08/07/05 (0)

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