Welcome Guest! Be sure you know and follow the Phorum Rules before posting. Thank you and Enjoy! (January 12, 2025) x

Thread Closed

What are the best tubes to use?
#2

There are what we in the radio hobby call "Audiophools" (audiophiles) that will swear up and down that one brand of tube is better then another, or that NOS American, British, or European makes are better then the Russian or Chinese types for sound. What it really boils down to is having two tubes as a matched pair, same type, same emission, same brand, with the same suffix like is there is an "A" after the "G" or "GT" in fact having both of the same brand may not be that important so much as the emission of each tube being within a certain range of the other. In the case of Philco most of their tubes were either made by National Union or Sylvania, Sylvania also made tubes for Zenith, so a Zenith, A Philco, and a Sylvania marked tube could very likely be from the same source. There are some Audiophools that get obsessed with production runs, date codes, and even the colour of the plate inside, in truth I do not know of any evidence other then anecdotal that supports this. I think the condition of the components in the surrounding circuitry will have more of an impact, leaky condensers or resistors that have drifted in value can throw tube biases way off. Sometimes it's a matter of the speaker, it's size, condition, and quality, hook up a decent six inch speaker in place of a four incher on an AC/DC set and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Used tubes are fine, if they test good, in fact used tubes that are known to be good have less of a chance of failure then a NOS tube since they are already broken in. As for stocking replacements, you can do so but there really is no hurry unless there is a catastrophic failure like a condenser shorting out, with the amount of use that a restored old radio gets it will take a long time to wear the tubes out. If there are a few tubes that are a little weak or borderline on emission then it might make some sense to replace them if only to boost performance.
Best Regards
Arran


Messages In This Thread
What are the best tubes to use? - by shaler78 - 02-05-2009, 12:52 AM
Re: What are the best tubes to use? - by Arran - 02-05-2009, 02:36 AM



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)
[-]
Recent Posts
Plug Voltages Needed For A 1943 CRV-20130 Power Supply
That looks a lot like an aircraft connector of some kind, even if it's a U.S.N power supply. I have a book somewhere abo...Arran — 02:56 AM
Plug Voltages Needed For A 1943 CRV-20130 Power Supply
hello david, I have a similar generator in my collection that features a cast iron, single-cylinder Briggs & Stratt...radiorich — 01:00 AM
under chassis parts locator diagram for 1938 Zenith 9s262
Has anyone gone to the trouble of creating an under chassis parts locator image?  Yes, I can identify components by foll...bobloney — 08:57 PM
Plug Voltages Needed For A 1943 CRV-20130 Power Supply
Try looking at this site the book mark is for a old generator that I was given. David    https://radionerds.com/index.ph...David — 08:36 PM
Plug Voltages Needed For A 1943 CRV-20130 Power Supply
Hello Everyone, I am looking for voltage identification for all the pin positions on the socket of a CRV-20130 power su...Tonym4704 — 08:16 PM
Philco P45-6365 Universal Transformer Instruction Manual
Can anyone guide me to where this may be found?GRG — 03:00 PM
54C Complete Teardown/Rebuild
I don't think that I have encountered a 12Z3 before, curious how it uses one of those but includes a #43, which is a 25 ...Arran — 02:17 PM
HiFi (Chifi) tube amp build - but my own design.
It's the other forum. I'm also in DIY, but mostly read there. Honestly, I kinda jumped into this without much thought to...TV MAN — 10:43 AM
Philco 71 Code 125
Hello,  I am in need of a schematic for this radio. Mine has the three separate circular tube shields and a shadow me...dconant — 08:06 AM
Stromberg Carlson 1500 Squeal
And life just keeps getting more complicated.dconant — 07:57 AM

[-]
Who's Online
There are currently no members online.

>