Somebody please clue me in about what's going on. A pair
of 6CA7's just went for $203. Earlier today, a pair of
6SN7's went for over $300 (I missed out on checking the final
price). I get the impression that people are collecting these,
and the color of the base, or the shape of the getter, or
*whatever* is very important (to them) in determining the value.

Can anyone really tell the difference in the way 6SN7's by
RCA/Sylvania/Dumont/etc sound in a preamp? Does a brown base
impart better tonal qualities than a black base, or is it the
other way around?

Tell me what's driving these ridiculous prices.... I may be
sitting on a gold mine here and not know it.

--
-fb-

They use them in guitar amps for the way they transition into distortion,
tone
The RCA with the black plates do sound totally different, they are going
after specific tubes made by spacific factorys , spacific years
They ID them by plates, getters, tops, logos.
A set of domestic GE 6CA7's or RCA 6V6's is a hard find in 2006.
All the Eastern block and Chinese (fancy silkscreen reliable Groove Tubes)
just sound lousy or short
You cant run them in a classic Marshall JTM 45 and play Led
Zepplin.........even if you turn down to 11.

Some of these rock and roll and Bass guitar amps like a 70's Ampeg SVT are
very hard on tubes, who needs a failure in the middle of a show or have lug
a spare 90 pound beast around.

Check out the prices on Telefunken 12AX7's, GE 6550's and British
KT-88's.......OUCH !

-Joe


"funkbastler" wrote in message
...
Somebody please clue me in about what's going on. A pair
of 6CA7's just went for $203. Earlier today, a pair of
6SN7's went for over $300 (I missed out on checking the final
price). I get the impression that people are collecting these,
and the color of the base, or the shape of the getter, or
*whatever* is very important (to them) in determining the value.

Can anyone really tell the difference in the way 6SN7's by
RCA/Sylvania/Dumont/etc sound in a preamp? Does a brown base
impart better tonal qualities than a black base, or is it the
other way around?

Tell me what's driving these ridiculous prices.... I may be
sitting on a gold mine here and not know it.

--
-fb-

Joe wrote:

They use them in guitar amps for the way they transition into
distortion, tone
The RCA with the black plates do sound totally different, they are going
after specific tubes made by spacific factorys , spacific years
They ID them by plates, getters, tops, logos.
A set of domestic GE 6CA7's or RCA 6V6's is a hard find in 2006.
All the Eastern block and Chinese (fancy silkscreen reliable Groove
Tubes) just sound lousy or short
You cant run them in a classic Marshall JTM 45 and play Led
Zepplin.........even if you turn down to 11.

Some of these rock and roll and Bass guitar amps like a 70's Ampeg SVT
are very hard on tubes, who needs a failure in the middle of a show or
have lug a spare 90 pound beast around.

Check out the prices on Telefunken 12AX7's, GE 6550's and British
KT-88's.......OUCH !

-Joe


"funkbastler" wrote in message
...

Somebody please clue me in about what's going on. A pair
of 6CA7's just went for $203. Earlier today, a pair of
6SN7's went for over $300 (I missed out on checking the final
price). I get the impression that people are collecting these,
and the color of the base, or the shape of the getter, or
*whatever* is very important (to them) in determining the value.

Can anyone really tell the difference in the way 6SN7's by
RCA/Sylvania/Dumont/etc sound in a preamp? Does a brown base
impart better tonal qualities than a black base, or is it the
other way around?

Tell me what's driving these ridiculous prices.... I may be
sitting on a gold mine here and not know it.

--
-fb-


Its also very much a vanity thing. The well-eared gang claim to hear
subtle differences (always an improvement) in certain tubes and will pay
dearly for them...if for no other reason than bragging rights. And then
some tubes have a better proven reliability when stretched to abuse - as
Joe sez.
I can't hear these differences so to me any 6SN7 will always be just
another old TV set tube and anything more than $2/pair is excessive.
If you fancy yourself to be a seller in that market be prepared to have
on hand a $500 tube tester sitting somewhere to validate your claims and
a tonne of otherwise-useless BS writing skills.
Do some research and find out which ones sell and go for it. That
research and effort is what the deep-pocketed audio buyer is ultimately
paying for.
\
-ex

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:08:57 -0400, -ex- wrote:


Its also very much a vanity thing. The well-eared gang claim to hear
subtle differences (always an improvement) in certain tubes and will pay
dearly for them...if for no other reason than bragging rights. And then
some tubes have a better proven reliability when stretched to abuse - as
Joe sez.

Sounds like we're dealing with the same folks who think "monster cable"
makes their system sound better.

--
-fb-

"funkbastler" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:08:57 -0400, -ex- wrote:


Its also very much a vanity thing. The well-eared gang claim to hear
subtle differences (always an improvement) in certain tubes and will pay
dearly for them...if for no other reason than bragging rights. And then
some tubes have a better proven reliability when stretched to abuse - as
Joe sez.

Sounds like we're dealing with the same folks who think "monster cable"
makes their system sound better.

--
-fb-

Those folks also never allow an objective A/B test to cloud their thinking.
Oh well, a fool and his money are soon parted.

Dave Stadt wrote:

"funkbastler" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:08:57 -0400, -ex- wrote:


Its also very much a vanity thing. The well-eared gang claim to hear
subtle differences (always an improvement) in certain tubes and will pay
dearly for them...if for no other reason than bragging rights. And then
some tubes have a better proven reliability when stretched to abuse - as
Joe sez.

Sounds like we're dealing with the same folks who think "monster cable"
makes their system sound better.

Those folks also never allow an objective A/B test to cloud their thinking.
Oh well, a fool and his money are soon parted.

Oxygen-free cable for oxygen-free brains. It seems to fit.

--
My S.O. asked me why there wasn't a Microsoft-brand antivirus,
then immediately said, "Oh, of course. If they can't fix the
OS, you'd be crazy to buy their antivirus as an add-on."
-- Kevin Martin

I have never met an audiophile who wasnt an idiot, these guys are driving up
the prices for the guys who really need NOS tubes to make a living that pays
crap to begin with.
*&^%$# Yuppies !

-Joe

"funkbastler" wrote in message
...
Sounds like we're dealing with the same folks who think "monster cable"
makes their system sound better.

--
-fb-

Sounds like we're dealing with the same folks who think "monster
cable"
makes their system sound better.

It does! Particularly with higher currents. Although I never
fell for the clear insulation that acts as a magnifier and makes
the wire look much bigger. The difference between 22# and
14# is noticeable when making a side by side comparison.
Even on a car stereo. Makes a big difference with my trailer
lights too!

Anyone have a list of these golden tubes? I just put REL 811a
set in my linear and it seems to work just fine. I have (1)ea.
new RCA JAN 811a if anyone is interested.


--
AC6TK
http://tekstuff.freespaces.com

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 08:29:42 -0700, "JB" wrote:


Sounds like we're dealing with the same folks who think "monster
cable"
makes their system sound better.

It does! Particularly with higher currents. Although I never
fell for the clear insulation that acts as a magnifier and makes
the wire look much bigger. The difference between 22# and
14# is noticeable when making a side by side comparison.
Even on a car stereo. Makes a big difference with my trailer
lights too!

Well, let's not confuse monster wire with plain ol' large-gauge
wire.


Anyone have a list of these golden tubes? I just put REL 811a
set in my linear and it seems to work just fine. I have (1)ea.
new RCA JAN 811a if anyone is interested.

Dang! Was kinda lookin for one to use in a linear to hang on
the output end of my IC-703, but ended up buying an AL-811.
Now I have an L-4B I need to get rid of.

--
-fb-

Tubes for audiophiles get bid up in strange ways. I once bought a random
box of tubes on Ebay because it had a couple of tubes I needed in it. But
the seller tossed in all his junkers. Turned out that there were 10 or so
TungSol 6SN7s in the box-- dirty, but tested fine. I put them back up on
Ebay in the audio group and they sold for about $10 each.

30 years ago, I helped the University of Washington clean out the old
electrical engineering building and we tossed out 10's of thousands of
tubes in pallet loads. No one was allowed to scrounge, although some of
the professors packed away stuff in their car trunks.

Clean out your old dustbins-- might be cash there.
--
Steven D. Swift, , http://www.novatech-instr.com
NOVATECH INSTRUMENTS, INC. P.O. Box 55997
206.301.8986, fax 206.363.4367 Seattle, Washington 98155 USA