Tube tester?

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

heiney9 wrote: »

I was thinking CBS because the shinier plates. You think the Zalytron stencil was put on by CBS? I've never really done a deep dive into rebranded tubes. Do they arrive "naked" and then the rebrander adds the stencil/logo's, etc, or do they come that way from the manufacturer?

I'm pretty sure that the stenciling was done by the manufacturer, Zalytron most likely had a contract with the manufacturer.

I can only speak with regard to the close cousin of the 5692 which is the 6SL7 equivalent 5691. I have (2) pairs of RCA redbase 5691 from the 50's. Identical construction to the 5692, except the 5691 RCA's have a charcoal plate. Now, this could be indicative of year. Many 50's tubes were more grayish charcoal than black, shiny black.

I also have the (1) 5692 Ivan sold me and I have an RCA (labeled) 5692 (seen here) with grayish/charcoal plates. The Zalytron above is clearly shiny black.



But as usual nothing in the tube world seems to be 100% consistent. That's part of the fun of the hunt.

H9

I did get to audition the new GZ34 rectifier last night. It sounds pretty good, damn good really. I only had it up and running for about an hour. Not really enough time to get an intimate listen. It's a little less "etched" than the Golden Lion I had in prior. It had a tad more bass too than the Golden Lion too.

Not sure if etched is the correct description. With the Golden Lion the cymbals are very crisp and tight but don't have much air or decay. The Shuguang STR presents cymbals with just a bit less crispness, but then has the decay and air the Golden Lion seems to be lacking. The STR seems to be closer to real life, but both sound good and if you're not an attentive listener, you may not even notice. My ears are trained to hear these differences.

This for me is why I love and hate tubes. They play on nuances sometimes large, sometimes small. Both are minutely different, but both are perfectly fine to listen to. So then a choice has to be made.

I have yet to compare it to the Mullard. This Shuguang might actually be a decent back-up. I do have my eye on a GE, but I really wasn't going down the rabbit hole for this piece of gear..........

Eh, who am I kidding, I'm a tube guy, of course I have to know how the GE sounds

H9