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What are the best tubes to use? - Printable Version

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What are the best tubes to use? - shaler78 - 02-05-2009

I have a Philco 47-1230 with two 6V6 tubes used for P-P output. Are any manufactures tubes better than others to use in this set to achieve better sound quality. I am currently using two RCA tubes that sound pretty good. Is there any difference in sound quality between different manufacturers, and is there any real difference between new more modern tubes vs. NOS or tested good old used tubes? I was looking to buy a full replacement set of tubes, new or used, for this chassis as eventual replacements. This set has a 9 tube compliment using 1-5Y3GT, 2-6V6GT, 1-7R7, 1-7X7, 1-7F8, 1-7AF7, 1-6AG5, and 1-6BA5. Thanks for any suggestions. Icon_biggrin

Re: What are the best tubes to use? - Arran - 02-05-2009

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

Re: What are the best tubes to use? - radiomikee - 02-05-2009

What determines how good your radio will sound is the quality of the speaker, the alignment of the tuning, the quality of your antenna, the condition of the volume control, and the state of the caps in the power supply and elsewhere. The quality of the tubes is one of the lower issues. Even tubes with weak emissions by testing can still be serviceable. Tube brand in an antique radio is not so important, as any tube can go bad after all these years. Having a good test tube with no gas, no microphonics and that sounds nice in your set is about the all you need. Generally speaking, antique radios are "low fidelity" meaning the range of frequencies coming from the speaker is alot more restricted than a quality audio system.