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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 14, 2015 22:28:09 GMT -6
Wow...so $40 apiece for the Sylvania's? Of course, the matched pair RCA's end up being around that much after shipping... What do you think kidvybes - are these in short supply? Should I buy another pair? Have we replaced unobtanium (VF14) with soon to be price-jacked limited availability (408)? |
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Post by drbill on Mar 14, 2015 22:54:19 GMT -6
I just checked my bill from 2 weeks ago and I don't see that the prices have changed ? 16 british pounds base per valve plus shipping and handling thx Tony, yes that is what i thought and you do pay extra for the matching and for maxs build :money will spent. Just ended up buying 4 matched. Ended up being $32 each shipped to my door. |
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Post by tonycamphd on Mar 14, 2015 23:13:11 GMT -6
Wow...so $40 apiece for the Sylvania's? Of course, the matched pair RCA's end up being around that much after shipping... What do you think kidvybes - are these in short supply? Should I buy another pair? Have we replaced unobtanium (VF14) with soon to be price-jacked limited availability (408)? if you go back and wash all the posts of any 408A talk, we can keep the secret for ourselves.... Man, have you guys heard the western electric 408a's?!!! Their the bomb! they blow away the RCA and Sylvania's, i'm gonna throw my RCA's in the trash 8)bigger font gets higher on the google machine....right? |
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Post by category5 on Mar 14, 2015 23:43:19 GMT -6
I can't wait to try these. The silver pin RCA's are one of my favorite tubes in this application already. Almost dead quiet at first power up. the gold pin Sylvanias sound nice but don't have the same low end the RCA's do. If you can find a quiet pair the WE's are like butter. Even a good pair may be a little noisier than many would like. For me the right sound is worth a little noise. I most recently tried a set of Ericsson tubes. They look like a Swedish made WE408a but soud great and see quieter than any WE tubes I've tried. I said before I think we are dealing with only a couple of tubes here, re-branded for different companies. The differences may have more to do with build date and which factory made them. I bought a lot of 20 WE's and all of them have been usable from the get go. I bought a 6 pack before that and all sounded like popcorn. I think Kcat got a pair from bowie that were pretty noisy too. It would definitely be worth paying a premium for known quiet, burned in pairs of these. Whose got time to do it? kidvybes. Hound me on FB man. We'll get that capsule put in. You have to catch me on the right day at the right time. My family, job, and the band are intent on monopolizing every free minute I have. |
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Post by category5 on Mar 14, 2015 23:46:14 GMT -6
BTW don't bother paying extra for matched pairs. These are used in parallel so matching really doesn't offer significant benefit. Just find quiet ones.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2015 4:00:23 GMT -6
^This.
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Mar 15, 2015 5:54:08 GMT -6
I just checked my bill from 2 weeks ago and I don't see that the prices have changed ? 16 british pounds base per valve plus shipping and handling ...yeah, but is that with the match fee?...the first time I posted the link they were about 10.50 UK Pounds per tube plus another 5.50 per tube to match... ...once he was approached with a "group buy" offer, that was all he needed to know...thus the price increases... ...and oh, JK, here's your other option (from what I can see, the RCA and Sylvanias are identical): www.ebay.com/itm/SYLVANIA-GB-408A-GB-408A-GB408A-Tube-4-Pieces-NEW-/121570831828"...once he was approached with a "group buy" offer, that was all he needed to know...thus the price increases..." maybe  , when I emailed about my order , he had a problem with the server going down and commented that he was surprised at the rush of orders on these tubes from the states I think its just supply and demand; they know there is limited supply. I find all these international purchase prices are significantly increased by duties, shipping taxes etc.. My bank charged me $45 just for bouncing a payment yesterday, so paying somebody the equivalent for two (hopefully ) great tubes that are difficult to get doesn't seem out of line to me. But apparently in short order the tube price has more than doubled ? |
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Post by kidvybes on Mar 15, 2015 8:33:07 GMT -6
...there was a lot of interest in the 408A tubes about 6-7 years ago for use in a very popular audiophile headphone amp called the "Little Dot"...I remember seeing many NOS tubes being sold on eBay as "Little Dot" tubes of choice...that amp continues to be popular and I think that it inspired a bit of hoarding back then...there are quite a few high quality pentode tubes (like the EF95, as Tim said) that differ in the heater/sensitivity ratings...here's a forum thread (148 pgs and counting!) in which all the variants are discussed: www.head-fi.org/t/364043/little-dot-i-tube-rolling...I'm sure a few of these options could be employed with minor adjustments, if someone like Tony or Shane chose to do some testing...but even with all these variants, gold-pin versions seem to be limited...couldn't hurt to have a spare pair as backups... Attachments:
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Post by category5 on Mar 15, 2015 9:14:39 GMT -6
Before everyone goes nuts and buys this guy out we really need to find out if the gold pin version offers an advantage over the standard RCA or other brand variants.
The silver pin RCA was my early pick as well, for a full bodied tone and for being quiet.
Each tube offers an advantage so there is no one best tube for these mics. The choice offers "flavor enhancement" even the original 47 didn't offer.
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Post by category5 on Mar 15, 2015 9:57:44 GMT -6
Has anyone tried EF95's? Same tube different heater. Gefell used them in some mics. You can find good quality and they are cheap. Looking around a bit in europe RCA 408a's sell for around 7.5 pounds. One of the main advantages of the 408A is the 20V heater since wiring the heaters in series allows the 36V heater feed of the original U47 circuit to work without modification. You could use EF95s but you'd need to use a different PSU and a 7 pin connector to bring a discrete heater feed in for the tubes. You'd also wire them in parallel instead of series. It'd surely work, but not easier than sourcing 408a tube - at least until the supply really starts to dry up. |
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Post by tonycamphd on Mar 15, 2015 9:59:52 GMT -6
Before everyone goes nuts and buys this guy out we really need to find out if the gold pin version offers an advantage over the standard RCA or other brand variants. The silver pin RCA was my early pick as well, for a full bodied tone and for being quiet. Each tube offers an advantage so there is no one best tube for these mics. The choice offers "flavor enhancement" even the original 47 didn't offer. you need to have kidvybes come to your pad to drop off those tubes and mic and ?, so you can report back, this kinda reminds me of the movie trading places when Eddie and Dan manipulated the orange report at the exchange, everyone waiting on edge and then....bam! go nutz! 408 report is in! BUY!!!! THEM  US  |
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Post by wiz on Mar 15, 2015 16:27:06 GMT -6
Karate Man... Bruise on the iNSIDE!
one of the best lines ever...
8)
cheers
Wiz
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Post by winetree on Mar 15, 2015 17:36:09 GMT -6
I've got 4 of the RCA 408a gold tips ordered.
That gives me 5 different tubes types to try out.
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 15, 2015 18:22:03 GMT -6
This is not helping my "don't panic and order another set" problem...
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 15, 2015 18:47:03 GMT -6
Couldn't stand it...two more
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Mar 15, 2015 18:51:19 GMT -6
shssss ! |
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Post by wiz on Mar 15, 2015 18:53:43 GMT -6
damn i don't even have a use.. and I wanna buy a pair.
8)
wife says I should grow a pair.. how the hell do you grow tubes... oh.. wait...
cheers
Wiz
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 15, 2015 18:58:42 GMT -6
damn i don't even have a use.. and I wanna buy a pair. 8) wife says I should grow a pair.. how the hell do you grow tubes... oh.. wait... cheers Wiz The first part of this made me laugh even harder than the second... |
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 24, 2015 13:33:18 GMT -6
Looks like valvetubes.com is not working. I paid for another set and have no way to track. Hope it's just down temporarily.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2015 13:37:08 GMT -6
You could try to contact them thru Facebook...
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kcatthedog
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RCA 408's
Mar 24, 2015 13:50:52 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by kcatthedog on Mar 24, 2015 13:50:52 GMT -6
they send you a tracking number with your invoice? ROYAL MAIL gets it to north america in 6 days, then customs seems to take a week, then your indigenous service takes over : plan on 2-3 weeks in total  |
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 24, 2015 14:54:26 GMT -6
Yeah - never got the first email...I have an email out to the guy.
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kcatthedog
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RCA 408's
Mar 24, 2015 15:37:45 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by kcatthedog on Mar 24, 2015 15:37:45 GMT -6
kef !
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, when I emailed about my order , he had a problem with the server going down and commented that he was surprised at the rush of orders on these tubes from the states 
