I have found certain traits to certain brands of tubes regardless of the tube type. I find this curious as these traits must therefore be a result of the materials used in its construction, i.e. plate and anode coatings, grid wires etc rather than the physical design/layout.
As for quality, microphonics, humming, its been a mixed bag for me. I have discovered i prefer some of the more recently made Russian tubes to some of the NOS US or UK made tubes.
p.s. aren't all tubes NOS at this stage?
As for quality, microphonics, humming, its been a mixed bag for me. I have discovered i prefer some of the more recently made Russian tubes to some of the NOS US or UK made tubes.
p.s. aren't all tubes NOS at this stage?
Absolutely. Ears-only means just that- no peeking or other cues unrelated to sound.
If you know that you have changed tube A for tube B, then that's not ears-only. You've used your eyes, your preconceptions, your unconscious biases... not just your ears. Personally, I trust my ears, so if I can't hear a difference without cues other than sonic, so be it. Many other people like to quote the "trust your ears" mantra, but it's almost always in the context of justifying peeking.
I understand artosalo's confusion as i too was discombobulated.
So you're saying that Vincent claims "I respectfully disagree. In my experiments, some tube brands consistently sounded different to others." without doing blind test?
So you're saying that Vincent claims "I respectfully disagree. In my experiments, some tube brands consistently sounded different to others." without doing blind test?
Various tube brands with the same number, can measure differently. They are just made differently for some reason. For example, I have measured some EL34 tubes (Russian) that measured far worse than EL-34 tubes made by Siemens. Dick Sequerra (a tube expert) was not surprised.
and send those to me for proper disposal....i am willing to do it for free...😀
because they were made in different factories, using different methodologies, different material and different quality controls, it is therefore no wonder they are different...
even semicons produced on the same wafers will have differences on characteristics....
it is up to the designer to even out this differences and come out with a consistent design...
So are tubes from the same brand. And even with the brand for a single type, there's spread from machine/operator tolerances, day to day and unit to unit variations, materials lots, you name it. This also is true of reliability.
The shape of the printed ink on the envelope is irrelevant to the causes of tube-to-tube variation within a type and between types.
yes, even sections in an envelop seldom have identical characteristics, you have to screen hundreds to get a few equally matched sets...
there is a merry mix-up, RCA orders tubes from GE and vice versa....
there is a merry mix-up, RCA orders tubes from GE and vice versa....
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