http://www.westernelectric.com/index.html
Western Electric Has aquired EI Tubes. I am sure there will be a transitional period, But at least the QC should improve.
Trout
Western Electric Has aquired EI Tubes. I am sure there will be a transitional period, But at least the QC should improve.
Trout
Almost zero information there, normally one would assume that this meant that they (WE) had acquired the physical inventory, IP, and production equipment, and possibly some part of the plant as well..
In this case though I am not quite sure..
Regardless of what was said in the AA thread, money definitely talks and I would think that a small, reasonably well heeled corporation like Westrex might be able to come to acceptable terms with the Serbian government or its agents to acquire the remaining tube production assets in that plant. I doubt very much somehow that they would want to sell recent production EI tubes under their own label - I would assume their interest is mainly in the facility and the tooling that resides in it.
I also doubt very much that WE would lie as has been alleged in that AA thread, and my understanding has always been that it is a corporation and not just an individual as alleged in that same thread. Their credibility is pretty necessary to be successful in the niche they occupy. In the way of disclosure I used to be a dealer, and used their 300B in my premium commercial product - and it was very, very good, perhaps the best 300B I have run across. (I'd have a pair, but I can't afford the price of admission particularly now.)
PM components (afaik) is nothing more than a (major) distributor so the comments about the EI/Svetlana thing confuse me. AFAIK they don't own any of the manufacturers of products they distribute. And I know all about the SED thing as well, they just simply were not the highest bidder at the bankruptcy proceedings. (Not that I am unsympathetic, I do think SV should have been able to retain the use of their name here as well as elsewhere.) Sour grapes?
Please don't quote me as an authority (LOL) as this is nothing more than idle speculation on my part. I have no insight into what is actually going on so this is just my conjecture/suspicion/opinion.
edit: a couple of deletes and typo fixes
FWIW WE's market is not really the typical DIY (well heeled exceptions merrily excluded.. ) type, but some rather high end boutique manufacturers here and in Japan. The only acceptable tube in the market I was selling into at the time was the WE..
In this case though I am not quite sure..
Regardless of what was said in the AA thread, money definitely talks and I would think that a small, reasonably well heeled corporation like Westrex might be able to come to acceptable terms with the Serbian government or its agents to acquire the remaining tube production assets in that plant. I doubt very much somehow that they would want to sell recent production EI tubes under their own label - I would assume their interest is mainly in the facility and the tooling that resides in it.
I also doubt very much that WE would lie as has been alleged in that AA thread, and my understanding has always been that it is a corporation and not just an individual as alleged in that same thread. Their credibility is pretty necessary to be successful in the niche they occupy. In the way of disclosure I used to be a dealer, and used their 300B in my premium commercial product - and it was very, very good, perhaps the best 300B I have run across. (I'd have a pair, but I can't afford the price of admission particularly now.)
PM components (afaik) is nothing more than a (major) distributor so the comments about the EI/Svetlana thing confuse me. AFAIK they don't own any of the manufacturers of products they distribute. And I know all about the SED thing as well, they just simply were not the highest bidder at the bankruptcy proceedings. (Not that I am unsympathetic, I do think SV should have been able to retain the use of their name here as well as elsewhere.) Sour grapes?
Please don't quote me as an authority (LOL) as this is nothing more than idle speculation on my part. I have no insight into what is actually going on so this is just my conjecture/suspicion/opinion.
edit: a couple of deletes and typo fixes
FWIW WE's market is not really the typical DIY (well heeled exceptions merrily excluded..
) type, but some rather high end boutique manufacturers here and in Japan. The only acceptable tube in the market I was selling into at the time was the WE..
I'll be happy camper if WE invest in local EI RC factory as ...what's term....owner of more than 51%....
tools are here,knowledgeable workers and engineers (even if not in EI RC) are still around and.....worker's day salary is still enough low to be interesting for foreign investors
there is one thing to not forget -this was- recently- factory capable to construct pretty modern audio tube -as KT90 was;
in time pre- enormous financial troubles for entire entity known today as former Yugoslavia, entire team was normally present in factory,and final QC was as must be ,and overall production was on entirely different level of Q then later..........
tools are here,knowledgeable workers and engineers (even if not in EI RC) are still around and.....worker's day salary is still enough low to be interesting for foreign investors
there is one thing to not forget -this was- recently- factory capable to construct pretty modern audio tube -as KT90 was;
in time pre- enormous financial troubles for entire entity known today as former Yugoslavia, entire team was normally present in factory,and final QC was as must be ,and overall production was on entirely different level of Q then later..........
Tom Bavis said:
Tom, I have to disagree with you. There was a clear change in Ei product quality when production resumed after the NATO campaign halted it for a time. I experienced it in the KT-90 line and many others. For instance "pre-war" KT-90s had zero or VERY close to zero screen misalignment issues; "post-war" KT-90s had near 100% misaligned screens.
No, the plant was not bombed, but there was military activity in the area. I'd imagine many of the employees fled the area, and with them went much of the tube making expertise. A comrade from the old R.A.T. newsgroup who lives near Nis told me there were very few workers in the plant "post-NATO".
Subcontractors and/or suppliers may have suffered too.
A cryptic message from Ei was passed on to me a few years ago from one of my distributors. They (the distributor) were being told the reason that there were no new Ei 12AX7s being made was it was too cold! That could mean the factory was without utilities for a time as well.
I promise you - it's a lot more than just a way to identify vintage. I
Tubes4e4 said:
Yes, it may have been based on another tube, but it's hardly just an "octal sub". David Manley was involved in the initial design, and the later tubes were also "massaged" by Bill Perkins (of PEARL fame).
And the whole business of "never intended as an audio tube" is meaningless. Most of the tubes used in audio today were designed for something else. There are VERY few tubes designed specifically for high fidelity audio.
Hi Jim,
"And the whole business of "never intended as an audio tube" is meaningless. Most of the tubes used in audio today were designed for something else. There are VERY few tubes designed specifically for high fidelity audio."
Some of these REAL audio tubes are EL84/6BQ5, EL34 (not 6CA7) , KT66, KT88, 6F6/42, 46 & 47 , WE350B, 6L6 (not 807) , F2A11, EL156
El519 are like6LF6 , usable in MC3500 or OTLs
"And the whole business of "never intended as an audio tube" is meaningless. Most of the tubes used in audio today were designed for something else. There are VERY few tubes designed specifically for high fidelity audio."
Some of these REAL audio tubes are EL84/6BQ5, EL34 (not 6CA7) , KT66, KT88, 6F6/42, 46 & 47 , WE350B, 6L6 (not 807) , F2A11, EL156
El519 are like6LF6 , usable in MC3500 or OTLs 
Hmmm. Looking around the commercial designs with the biggest production numbers, one sees a predominance of EL84 (and equiv), EL34 (ditto), 6550/KT88, and 6L6oids. All designed for audio.
(disclaimer: my own main amp uses 6LF6, which indeed were not designed for audio. Jim, I hand you the knife with which to do me in!
)edit: Input tubes are more arguable, especially with the popularity of the ECC88 series.
SY said:
Hmmm. Looking around the commercial designs with the biggest production numbers, one sees a predominance of EL84 (and equiv), EL34 (ditto), 6550/KT88, and 6L6oids. All designed for audio.
(disclaimer: my own main amp uses 6LF6, which indeed were not designed for audio. Jim, I hand you the knife with which to do me in!
Hee hee!
No knife needed, nor wanted. My point was the whole concept of "audio tubes" is limited to a tiny fraction of the numbers out there. For those who don't know, 6LF6s were TV tubes - horizontal deflection amplifiers that could handle a LOT of current. They make terrific audio output devices - the famous Futterman/NYAL amps used them as have some others.Your point is valid - there are more large power tubes specifically intended for audio use - although tubes like the EL84/6BQ5 (and the 6AQ5/6V6) were designed to be cheap to use as much as they were designed to sound okay. And other output tubes like 6BM8/ECL82, 6KD6, 6KG6, 211, 845, etc. were "stolen" from other duty.
I wasn't limiting my comments to just power tubes. As you briefly touched on, the "audio" small signal tubes are few and far between. The 6EU7, the 12AY7/6072, the 5879, and a few others were described as "audio" tubes. Tubes very common in audio gear like the 6SN7, 12AT7, 12AU7, 5963, 5965, 6DJ8 family, etc. weren't.
My only point is that if you look at the 10s of thousands of tube types out there, only a handful are/were "intended for audio". So the disparaging comment about the KT-90 Ei as "never intended as an audio tube" was a red herring. It was a wonderful audio tube - when it was made right - regardless of its parentage!
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