Tube gear question

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm looking at a few tubed headphone amps. One of these has listed using the following tubes:

Tung-Sol 12FK6
Tung-Sol 12AE6

Are those the crappy Chineese variety that I won't be able to roll in decent replacement for, or would there be some decent options for those?

dexfx69

Have you checked out the Bellari VP129? Of course, it's phono only.

mhardy6647

Sounds like the Pete Millet hybrid, low voltage "space charge" tube headphone amp! :-)

Those are specialized tubes from the end of the tube car radio area, which use very low plate voltages (direct from the car's electrical system). There are a number of nominally equivalent tubes (and they're all very cheap), from (for example) www.tubesandmore.com

I've only found a few of the types Pete suggested to actually work in his original version of the amp, as published in audioXpress, FWIW.

No, those are old stock, real Tung-Sol. The current Tung-Sol brand is being applied to decent Russian tubes, BTW.

Pete's original amp design:
http://www.pmillett.com/file_downloads/ax_hybrid.pdf
(this suggests possible replacement tube types for those)

The above-mentioned amp design has been taken upscale at HeaFi! See:
http://www.pmillett.com/hybrid_head.htm and links therein.

Much more info on 'space charge' tubes:
http://www.duntemann.com/12vtubes/12vtubesindex.htm

Hope this helps...