Hi, dsavitsk
Your interests are similar to me. On 17,Sept, I ordered
4pcs of 7722 and 10pcs of 6688. Today I received them
including other tubes from AES.
The contents of 7722 and 6688 are as follows (see attached photo).
7722: All of 4 pcs were Sylvania but "GERMANY" is
printed on the tubes
6688: 5cps GE, 5pcs Amperex
I satisfied these tubes since I did not designate pair tubes.
On the other hand, I ordered one 4E27 but they shipped out
4E27A instead. I applied 5V to the filament but it went
burn out with smoke (see below URL). I requested to AES
to deduct the cost of 4E27 from my credit card account.
http://www.ny.airnet.ne.jp/ohashi/D-classBBS/data/4E27A.jpg
Your interests are similar to me. On 17,Sept, I ordered
4pcs of 7722 and 10pcs of 6688. Today I received them
including other tubes from AES.
The contents of 7722 and 6688 are as follows (see attached photo).
7722: All of 4 pcs were Sylvania but "GERMANY" is
printed on the tubes
6688: 5cps GE, 5pcs Amperex
I satisfied these tubes since I did not designate pair tubes.
On the other hand, I ordered one 4E27 but they shipped out
4E27A instead. I applied 5V to the filament but it went
burn out with smoke (see below URL). I requested to AES
to deduct the cost of 4E27 from my credit card account.
http://www.ny.airnet.ne.jp/ohashi/D-classBBS/data/4E27A.jpg
Attachments
Off Topic
There are many people who get out of the big house and can't find a legit job. I've worked with some people in a factory setting who were on work-release, and they were mostly excellent employees. Poor guys mostly had to lift and bundle juice all day, crap job, but they were happy to be out and working steady.
It's a shame our prison system sets people up to fail on the outside, so kudos to the speaker repair shop for making rehabilitation a little more likely for some.
SY said:
There are many people who get out of the big house and can't find a legit job. I've worked with some people in a factory setting who were on work-release, and they were mostly excellent employees. Poor guys mostly had to lift and bundle juice all day, crap job, but they were happy to be out and working steady.
It's a shame our prison system sets people up to fail on the outside, so kudos to the speaker repair shop for making rehabilitation a little more likely for some.
tubelab.com said:
From many years of experience I have found that virtually all old Eimac tubes with "green glass" on the bottom will be air bottles to some extent. Even if it doesn't smoke the filament will light up dull. For some reason the seals just didn't hold up. You stand a much better chance with clear class bottoms. I won't even buy the green ones anymore.
Also, almost anything in that style of glass power tube (4-1000 & down) with dark streaks on the radiation shield just below the plate structure will be weak. Those burn marks, which aren't always obivous to the uninformed, are a sign of hard use. Even if there is no coffee stain on the glass.
Victor
Re: Off Topic
Agreed. The numbers for American prisons are shameful. 1 in 100 adults in America is currently serving time, the highest rate in the world by far. Moreover, while crime rates (drug use in this link) are basically consistent across racial and ethnic lines, African American men are more than 12 times more likely than whites to serve time. I am glad to hear of businesses giving people a second chance, and I have my doubts that this has anything to do with AES being unable to match a pair of 71a's.
badman said:
Agreed. The numbers for American prisons are shameful. 1 in 100 adults in America is currently serving time, the highest rate in the world by far. Moreover, while crime rates (drug use in this link) are basically consistent across racial and ethnic lines, African American men are more than 12 times more likely than whites to serve time. I am glad to hear of businesses giving people a second chance, and I have my doubts that this has anything to do with AES being unable to match a pair of 71a's.
I have purchased quite a lot of stuff from AES. Tubes, small parts [large orders of resistors and caps, pots etc], speakers and transformers.
They have always been helpfull and curteous with me. Parts have arrived reasonably packed and only a very few "mistakes" usually transposing a valure of resistor etc.
No complaints.
Mike J
They have always been helpfull and curteous with me. Parts have arrived reasonably packed and only a very few "mistakes" usually transposing a valure of resistor etc.
No complaints.
Mike J
I’ve purchased 500 tubes from AES over the past few years. Of those, there were only two problems: one 6S4 had gone to air and a 12AU7 was in a 12AV7 box. I didn’t bother to ask for an exchange since each tube was only worth a buck or two. AES has always shipped my orders on the next day but it takes UPS over a week to deliver to the Philly area. All the shipments have arrived in good shape except for one where the box was crushed in one corner and the tape on the bottom split. But there was no damage to the contents. Admittedly, I have never asked for any special services such as matching or specifying a particular brand.
I guess The Tube Center (TTC) has two levels of service, one level for their internet store and a lesser level for their ebay store. About six months ago I purchased a sleeve of 5965s via BIN from the TTC ebay store. They were advertised as five NOS RCAs. Inspection on receipt showed that four of them did appear to be NOS RCAs. The fifth one had a label marked “USED” on the outside of the RCA box but the box contained a GE 5965. The GE tested out OK so I choose to keep it. I have not bought many tubes from TTC.
Poindexter said:
I guess The Tube Center (TTC) has two levels of service, one level for their internet store and a lesser level for their ebay store. About six months ago I purchased a sleeve of 5965s via BIN from the TTC ebay store. They were advertised as five NOS RCAs. Inspection on receipt showed that four of them did appear to be NOS RCAs. The fifth one had a label marked “USED” on the outside of the RCA box but the box contained a GE 5965. The GE tested out OK so I choose to keep it. I have not bought many tubes from TTC.
The moment of truth has arrived. A package from AES bearing the new, hand selected, supposedly physically matched, 71a's showed up at my door. And the verdict?
They are the same brand, clearly made in different years (probably different decades) and one is considerably taller than the other. That is to say, they are not even close. This is just bewildering.
They are the same brand, clearly made in different years (probably different decades) and one is considerably taller than the other. That is to say, they are not even close. This is just bewildering.
Attachments
I have had the same problem with 71A, and whats more 50% of the NOS/NIB ones I have purchased have been bad - and as you know they are somewhat expensive. I currently have a mismatched pair in my headphone amplifier and can neither measure nor hear any audible differences. (It sounds really good!)
I've also got ones that are same date code, same brand and mismatched in height so go figure..
The problem with the 71A is that it quite quickly became obsolete and only a replacement type made to keep outdated am radio receivers in operation - most were made during the worst years of the depression and QC does not appear to have been the primary consideration, either that or mis-handling of my NOS/NIB tubes must have been egregious. (Two have severely mis-aligned filaments relative to the grids, they work but are not great.)
Kevin
I've also got ones that are same date code, same brand and mismatched in height so go figure..
The problem with the 71A is that it quite quickly became obsolete and only a replacement type made to keep outdated am radio receivers in operation - most were made during the worst years of the depression and QC does not appear to have been the primary consideration, either that or mis-handling of my NOS/NIB tubes must have been egregious. (Two have severely mis-aligned filaments relative to the grids, they work but are not great.)
Kevin
I have been dealing with A.E.S. for probably 20+ years, from when George Fathauer still owned the company (I think he sold it ~ 1995). The only issue I ever had was a incorrect tube, something like an ECC82 instead of an ECC83 and that was long ago. I told them about it and they sent me the correct one and told me to keep the incorrect one. I just got ~$200.00 worth of stuff (mostly resistors and caps) from them. I have no complaints.
I would say that the service has fallen off over the last few years (things like picking specific tube types / brands) but when I think about it, if as a business owner you have people wanting specific tubes you are going to lose efficiency/money if you have a member of your staff spending perhaps an hour to find a couple $10.00 items.
Multiply this a few times a day.
It probably costs more to store and inventory many of the tubes they have than to sell them at a couple bucks each.
One of the harsh realities of business.
I would say that the service has fallen off over the last few years (things like picking specific tube types / brands) but when I think about it, if as a business owner you have people wanting specific tubes you are going to lose efficiency/money if you have a member of your staff spending perhaps an hour to find a couple $10.00 items.
Multiply this a few times a day.
It probably costs more to store and inventory many of the tubes they have than to sell them at a couple bucks each.
One of the harsh realities of business.
kevinkr said:I have had the same problem with 71A, and whats more 50% of the NOS/NIB ones I have purchased have been bad - and as you know they are somewhat expensive. I currently have a mismatched pair in my headphone amplifier and can neither measure nor hear any audible differences. (It sounds really good!)
I've also got ones that are same date code, same brand and mismatched in height so go figure..
The problem with the 71A is that it quite quickly became obsolete and only a replacement type made to keep outdated am radio receivers in operation - most were made during the worst years of the depression and QC does not appear to have been the primary consideration, either that or mis-handling of my NOS/NIB tubes must have been egregious. (Two have severely mis-aligned filaments relative to the grids, they work but are not great.)
Frustrating. I am working hard enough on this project to make it look nice that I'm just not willing to put up with it.
Maybe it is time to find a different tube, then. Any suggestions on a 4 pin DHT with a low mu and the lowest rp possible? Filament needs to be under 500mA or so, too.
dsavitsk said:
The 71A does not have particularly low rp, I think you could select the 45 as an alternative as it's rp is similar.. (It's also wonderful sounding in headphone service.) The 6B4G or 6A3 are other options and have much lower rp than the 7A or 45..
Some of the German post office DHT might work well in this application but have odd sockets and 4V filaments. You might want to look at the AA, BA, and BAS.. They are available on eBay for not obscene amounts of money and are quite linear.. Most of the information about using them is in German unfortunately as they have not traveled far afield. (Although I do have some.) RFT, Siemens and Valvo all made these types.
I've held my peace so far, but I'm gonna say it again. A tube with the rp of both of these, but about three times the gm, and otherwise really kewl specs (though it's not qui-ite as linear as the 71A), available, cheap, is a teevee video amplifier tube hight 6T4. There are, of course, other very similar tubes from the era for the same duty, all with similar chars, some differing only in pinout. I picked the 6T4 over others as a replacement to the irritatingly microphonic 6AQ5 just because Jack was holding. You might want to look at some of these, if you're not married to the gorgeous coke bottle.
They do, in their favor, have heaters that stick 2-3mm out the ends of the cathode sleeves, so they glow very romantically.
Just a data point,
Poinz
They do, in their favor, have heaters that stick 2-3mm out the ends of the cathode sleeves, so they glow very romantically.
Just a data point,
Poinz
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