Tube tester?

Ok, I was a bit hasty in buying this when the seller sent me a 50% off offer. It could be an early Chinese 5AR4. I tried using AI to identify it when I first bought it. But today it's telling me a different story.

@pitdogg2 , what you think?

tonyp063 wrote: »

Is that a "flying saucer" getter? I can't tell from the picture.
If yes, it's Russian made.

No, not a flying saucer. I know for sure it's not Russian.

I don't have it in my possession yet, just going by photo's. I'll post more when I get it later this week. AI is sure it's an early Japanese unit, just based on my description.

I only jumped on it because he gave me a deal. I think I paid about $50 shipped. The early Shuggy's were not that bad.......if that's what this is. I swear I thought it was a GE, but now that I've done some actual research, I can't find a GE that looks like this.

??????

H9

I don't own any Japanese tubes, but I have heard they are excellent. Hitachi also made a couple great signal tubes. The problem is even those command a fairly high price these days. Unless the seller doesn't know. There seems to be less and less un-knowledgable tube sellers these days.

In the past I could find lots of people just putting tubes up for sale, not knowing that they had a rare 1950 Tung Sol black plate or that Zenith labeled tube was actually a Hamburg made Valvo, or that Arkay labeled 12AU7 is actually a 1962 Brimar long plate.

I did find an odd ball 5AR4. Hitachi black plate, 3 mica O getter. But both are asking Mullard $$$. One is from Japan so the shipping is prohibitive.

I am still searching for a deal on a back up Mullard. Probably don't need it. This one may last the rest of my lifetime, but I feel as time goes on the supply will continue to dry up and prices will go up. I put the Genelax Golden Lion back in and it sounds really good, but the Mullard is whole other level. This is why I can never be satisfied with modern production tubes. I am sure there are a few gems out there, but I also know they are expensive.

My brother bought a Chi-Fi KT88 based integrated amp very, very similar to the Wellenston R8 @dragon1952 just sold for his office rig. All Chinese tubes, including the GZ34. He told me to not even try to tell him about OS stock tubes for it. He liked the sound out of the box. I even offered to "loan" him all the various OS tubes (except the KT88's) and he said nope! So I get it, some people don't want to be bothered. Set it and forget it!

I am always looking for more tubes if I can get a good bargain.

So perhaps it's time to atleast entertain getting a tube tester.

Something I noticed with Ebay is the $$$ seem rather ridiculous. If you add something to your watch list 75% of the time you get a reduced offer from the seller pretty quickly. Kind of annoying, why not post it at a lesser price. I'd say 8 out the last 10 tube purchases have been making offers back and forth after adding to my watch list.

H9

I didn't know that. Haven't sold anything for a long time on Ebay. Now that makes more sense why people ask an inflated price.

H9