Vacuum Tubes: Current Production and New Old Stock 

You can see our inventory of tubes here: www.amplifiedparts.com/products/vacuum_tubes

I've spent at least a hundred hours doing just that. They will never cease to amaze me.

you can't beat a tt filament for reliability they just don't like cold starts or vibration. Anyone using a tt tube without a remote power supply shouldn't be using them.hifi guy you know who you are. And don't be buying and hoarding them. one pair of ten y has lasted me for 15 years 18 hours a day and still nos test. remote power choke input soft start supplies starving them.Yes better to starve a little.

I have a 4 valve set I'm trying to restore. Uses 3 x DE6 and 1 x DER valve. Not easy finding information on stuff that's almost 100 years old!

@@9ernie9 Great stuff. I use The Valve Museum and the German Radiomuseum online. I also have the Babani Valve Books.

Thanks for the kind words Spyder! We're glad to be here for you. Feel free to reach out anytime!

Nice memories! We still see some of those old tube caddies every once in awhile when dealing with NOS tubes. They're very cool!

My dad would slap the side of the TV!!

At one time I was servicing home electronics in 60s. and 70s. and carried two large tube caddies carrying over 350 vacuum tubes (valves in the UK); some TV models carried odd named tubes which we has to special-order; these sets were sold by big department stores.

@@bobboscarato1313 funny enough I am fron the states/colonies & I call them Valves as well. Sometimes tubes. I feel tubes aren't a good way of describing them.

@@marcuscarrozza732 Valves is a good term as they control flow of electrons!

Yes for radio station transmitters

Or savings for old age, when they go WAY up in value...?

I think he means for audio amplification purposes. For guitar amps and such.

@@ryanacree so am I, JJ is Czech based as well. KR makes audio tubes 845 and 300b are used in high end audio amps.

Back in the day, a visiting TV technician would replace some tubes just to be able to charge some money for his visit. This, by the way, leads to LOTS of tubes "in original boxes" being used but sold as new, NOS. *Guess where the tech would put the old tube he yanked out?* Yes, it is pretty amazing how many NOS tubes still exist and likewise fairly amazing that many, many old tubes from the 30's and 40's still work. For one thing, once you have the factory to manufacture the tubes and are making them, it costs almost nothing to make hundreds if not thousands more. So you are making (then) a few bucks out of 2 cents in mat'ls, a great profit. I visited the RCA tube factory in Harrison, NJ on a high school field trip. This was maybe 1970. Quite fascinating. As for older tubes still working, most old radios and amps, etc; have a+/-20% tolerance on voltages, R & C values. *SOME* parts can be incredibly out of what you'd think was acceptable tolerance and the thing will still work. And then, suppose a part is going bad on an AA5 radio you listen to every day. Well, for 60-90+ days, every day the thing works a teeny bit worse, then worse, then worse, until it no longer works. But you don't notice it working slightly worse on Tuesday than it did on Monday. I also believe that nobody expected tubes to last as long as most of them do, plus, how easy is it to yank an old tube and throw a new on in? So they made zillions of them. And how hard is it to throw them out? They're these delicate things, in pretty boxes, they cost $6 or $10 or $12 30 years ago, how can they be worthless now? (Talking about odd tubes, like series filament TV types)

Yup, that's probably the last place a vacuum tube will forever hold court. All rise for the august magnetron!

I’ve taken apart several microwaves when I was on one and I didn’t see any vacuum tubes. The only vacuum tube I saw was the vacuum hose I used to clean up the mess of broken plastic, beryllium dust, broken glass…. You’re not talking about the display are you? I believe that is a glass chamber filled with gas…. Like a Nixie tube, but a 6 sided box and a glass nipple that is closed off..(that part is always black and carbonized from the heat when they seal it up)… I have my eye on this JVC RX 6008V AV receiver… but there is a classic Ford Mustang dashboard-style record player ontop with a bunch of garbage ontop of that. I think there might be come vacuum tubes in that. Edit: I just learned from this video that the carbon or heat damaged area on the glass is “getter flash”… 😎

Good video.

Should be good. I had some 6BR7 audio pentodes that were beautiful -- rugged, quiet, excellent.

They still make those.

I gave up on using EL34s years ago. They are Dodo bird eggs now.

Thanks!

send an email to sales@amplifiedparts.com and we will get one over to you!

I use D5.

When the empire fell they took with them all the proprietary design elements, including the rare earth information. That's why these new Russian tubes are not quite what they were. The same applies to Svetlana tubes.

TheMightyB58 only one tube though, the 300b and they cost a few limbs and a testicle

If you have 12.6 volts available you can sub a 1629 tube. They're cheaper.

Hey thanks! Here is the link for the shirt! www.amplifiedparts.com/products/t-shirt-black-12ax7-tube-diagram

I heard Russian use tubes too since tubes are much less susceptible to EMI.

Those would have been JAN (Joint Army Navy) tubes. The holy grail of tubes are those used for medical devices. Super long life, super rugged.

@@MuscleDad420 hmm. I have a pair of JAN Phillips ECG 6922s, do you think the ECG stands for Electrocardiogram?

@@DucNguyen-pl8zg All tubes are impervious to EMF. That's why the Russian military used them well into the 80s.

I just looked it up, I can't believe it, the famed 300B is back in production in the US. $700 for one and $1500 for a matched pair. the website says it's being produced in Georgia .

Really, the only ones being made are mostly audio tubes, for guitar and high fidelity amplifiers.

I would take RCA black plate 6L6GC tubes over those any day.

Yeah I'd like to have that shirt

@@ronalddaub5049 Thats what i've told myself too !

Hi jas20per, we are definitely working on building up stock of some good NOS germanium (and a few silicon) transistors. We have some NPN Philips OC141 in stock right now, but we are going to see what we can do about tracking down some of the really in-demand types.

🤝🤲

Where is it located?

@@Dave_____ Ohio

@@alanrogs3990 Thanks. Name of the place, if you do not mind sharing?

@@Dave_____ Are you a dealer or just a guy that wants to buy tubes for yourself?

@@alanrogs3990 Definitely not a dealer. Looking for a source of tubes other than the "normal" retailers.

BTW Japan also has 6E5, 6U5, and a rare 6G5 tube. (these are the green eye tubes for visual tuning).

Jeff Horn -Hi my name is Ramiro from San Antonio TX.I have 4 old things that use vacuum tubes.I was like u.I had no tubes tester.and the old TV repair shop will tell me that they don't have one no more..will it took me 3 years to find one for sale in a flea-market 4 $35.00 dollars.. u can find one too..they are out there..

Thanks, Todd!

I heard about those guys.

Getter turns white when vacuum is totally lost.

Vacuum tubes were used in all sorts of antique electronic devices. Everything from televisions and radios to x-ray machines and calculators. These days, they are pretty much only used in guitar and hi-fi amplifiers. We buy tubes from the public, so if you wish to discuss selling your tubes, you can always shoot us an email! info@amplifiedparts.com

Depends on how much you want to spend on them. Most notably would be Telefunken, Mullard, Genelex, RCA, Sylvania, and some of the GE tubes. I have a VTL preamp that has NOS Telefunken 12AX7s in it. Super expensive, but nothing else can come close to sounding so fantastic, especially with moving coil cartridges. Good luck.

The Valve Art screened tubes and the TAD tubes from that factory are excellent.

In the hifi sector.. Nope.. They all suck compared to a cheap ass Philips NOS

JinKwok brymar in the uk worth keeping an eye on

if anyone is considering doing this- please don’t do this. thanks.

Muriatic acid is too strong. Use plain and simple vinegar instead, but you will need to leave the pins submersed for several minutes. After that, wash the pins thoroughly to remove any imaginable tiny trace of vinegar.

A -LOT... Just look on E bay.

That tube is very rare, similar to a 7581A, GE's answer, except as with all Euro power tubes, can handle high screen voltages.

No.The older ones are much better.Can only talk about small signal tubes,12ax7 etc.Mullard m8137 is one mighty fine tube.

Im gonna invent a flat screen TV with tubes !!!! :-P lol !!!

Years ago i found a RCA repair box loaded with NOS tubes only about 20 of the 100 had ever been used and those were listed as tester tubes. I was lucky and all the tubes tested ok on my tester and years later im still using some tubes out of that stash. RCA, Westing House, GE, Mullard tubes etc.

Im always collecting RCA and GE tubes. Those are my fav 12ax7 and 6L6 tubes. Thanks for this video :-)

You can find the shirt here! www.amplifiedparts.com/products/t-shirt-black-12ax7-tube-diagram

@@amplifiedparts No way ! haha awesome :-)

Probably an amp far less capable than something with modern electronics. But what's the fun in that?

@@daytonasixty-eight1354 Audiophile sound quality..... Nothing can beat valves !!

@@daytonasixty-eight1354 Building tube stuff is actually a lot of fun, and they also sound good even for HiFi, if you mean lower wattage, who cares, at home you won't be using much more than 10 watts anyways with decently efficient speakers. If you are one of the green party j*rks complaining about low efficiency, I don't think the 0.1% percent or so of the population using tube amp will have a grea environmental impact, LOL.

@@westelaudio943 I don't give a fuck about the green party or the mothers of america crying about the gay baby whales