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RE: Decipher This


Hi Gordon. I fondly remember you from a show or two...

I had 40 of those AVVT mesh plates. They had hand-picked them over in Germany, so the ones I got were all later types and were nice. (I had bought some of them earlier in the USA, but those were "earlier" batch-- and had the grid problems). They were 100% reliable for me anyhow, but I didn't like their hum levels.

The newer ones had far lower hum, the plant had gone to work to better balance the filament. I suspected that because I was using balanced A.C. to run the filament-- the difference between the two batches was huge.

I have put many thousands of hours on these tubes with zero failures and zero "wear-outs". The plate currents I was using-- I found out later from JAC, were what he always used. About 2/3 "normal". Plate voltage was set up as 490 ON the plate, and 240 on the cathode, giving 250 VDC plate voltage. (D.C. amp).

What I love about these tubes is their transparency. They can SOUND "superconductive".

Kevin Hayes (VAC) had coached me into trying JJ's, which he had fallen in love with (big, rugged, easy to drive, (bold!), powerful sound). Idealize an amp for those and the mesh sounds a little "off", certainly not very "off"-- still more than acceptable in the tube amp world.

I would run those old mesh tubes for thousands of hours, running loud levels (I love it-- it stays clean) just running them hard, cooking, doing dishes, working outside. I just let them run like an appliance.

For shows or visitors, I always had a super-good pair, one that I had hand-picked, balanced in every way, including the resonant frequency tests. Those would have had about 1000-1500 hours on them, (broken-in) and them they were stashed, and only run every 6 months or so, for a short period.

Interesting tube (last batches). Idealize an amp for that tube, and you'll never forget it.

---Dennis---






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