Tube tester?

heiney9 · April 11

I am assuming it's a GE.

Actually it might be a "Japanese" Mullard.

heiney9 · April 11

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 · April 11

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

heiney9 · April 11

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.

pitdogg2 · April 11

If it has a seam top, yes ít very well could be Japanese. It certainly could be Chinese if it doesn't have the seam.
It's not of any GE I've ran across. If you got a decent deal then a working 5ar4 is better than one that doesn't..
I'm sorry I'm not much help.

heiney9 · April 11

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

pitdogg2 · April 11

The Matsushita tubes are what I am running down at present. The factory was built by Mullard with their tooling. The factories were pretty strict with their standards from what I gathered. The Matsushita 12ax7's with short grey ladder plate and a 45° large halo is sublime. Great bass, super wide stage and highs that just melt in your eardrum.
Nippon Electric co. (NEC) was another that made tubes that R2R makers loved because of their quality and dead quite noise free presentation.
I want some 😉

Toshiba tubes, for me, they have been very blaa. I'm not wasting anymore time and energy looking for.

heiney9 · April 12

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

pitdogg2 · April 12

The seller has nothing to do with those offers Brock, it's ebay driven. It's deep in the updated rules and regulations BS. If they want to sell on eBay they must agree with the "terms and conditions". Ebay also now charges fees from your shipping cost, so selling AND shipping fees, really cut into a sellers bottom line.

heiney9 · April 12

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 · April 14

Ok, so this appears to be a late 90's early 2000's Shuguang GZ34-STR (Selected/Special Tube Requirement). Based in my research, it's supposed to be a level higher in performance/build and tolerance compared to a standard GZ34 of the same time from Shuggy.

By all accounts it's supposed to be a pretty good rectifier. I have not had time to listen to it yet. I am a bit disappointed in myself for not doing better research before the purchase. I paid an average price for it. There are a couple others on Ebay for a little less. I really thought it was a GE, but now I see, it's not even close...really.

It never hurts to have a "somewhat" vintage back-up that functions well. I'd rather have put the $50 towards another Mullard.

Who knows, maybe this one will sound very good........this generation Shuggy and the fact it's "selected" reviews are VG to Ex.

H9

pitdogg2 · April 14

Many of them carried the TAD badge.

heiney9 · April 14

Yes and also my research say ARS with the square logo, screened these as well. Selling them to guitar amp companies as well as replacements for 60's and 70's tube amps, etc....Supposedly they only sold "cream of the crop" of this type of GZ34.

I'm just a bit annoyed I didn't do the research first. I almost always do and this time I made an assumption. I'll see how it sounds/performs before I pass anymore judgment.

H9

pitdogg2 · April 14

It'll be fine. Worse case, you need it to get you to the next Mullard or Sylvania. I've got several just for that issue.
I bought two NOS Japanese made 5AR4/GZ34's labeled as Westinghouse. They look like Mullards with the seam and for $60 for the pair I'm not going to sweat it.

Toolfan66 · April 14

Well, you tube guys, what do you guys know about these? I may have asked about these some moons ago, more than likely with Ivan. :-)

heiney9 · April 14

Looks like a 5962 (ruggedized 6SN7). Very rugged, long life. Excellent tube. Don't think it's an RCA or GE as they had maroonish/red bases, maybe a Sylvania or CBS or Raytheon? Ivan would know. My guess is CBS-Hytron

Any other codes on the glass or base?

H9

pitdogg2 · April 14

Redish lettering would lead me to CBS, my Sylvania 5692's had yellow. Both had the brown base.

heiney9 · April 14

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?

invalid · April 14

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.

pitdogg2 · April 14

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?

At this point it's all conjecture. I've seen RCA stencil over the top of European manufacturer. I've seen Amperex over the top of French tube manufacturer. There's always been some argument about the 5692 tubes. I've read in the past that ALL 5692's were made by only one manufacturer. I've also read all brown based 5692 were made by GE. At this stage no one knows 100% for certain. All the people that know, all the literature is most likely gone. I do know I tried to search the internet to try and find that article where I was reading that 25 years ago and I have never found it since.
I can state 100% for certain that the 3 sets I've had GE, CBS and Sylvania all looked exactly the same with the exception of the writing, CBS/GE- red, Sylvania yellow.
I never had any of the RCAs they were way too expensive.
The orphan 5692 went to you Brock. One of that pair shorted out one night.

heiney9 · April 15

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

pitdogg2 · April 16

A fresh example.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/177107011187

heiney9 · April 17

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

heiney9 · April 17

I am using this as a pre-amp, Eastern Electric Dac Plus with Dexa discrete op-amps, Pass ACA Minmax amp, Signal Cable Analog II, Canare 4S11, Polk R200's

1958 RCA JRC-5814, 3 mica, black plate w/square getter.

H9

pitdogg2 · April 17

I'm not fond of the GE 5ar4/GZ34. It will be the tube I use as a rectifier while searching for a replacement 😎

heiney9 · April 17

Ok, now I don't really need to have one. I'll keep an eye out for a decently priced Mullard for a back up.

Thanks Ivan

H9

Tube tester?

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