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Re: Which were sourced from foreign sources?

Posted by Robert H. on November 2, 2002 at 11:35:28

In Reply to: Which were sourced from foreign sources? posted by Kevin Deal on November 2, 2002 at 00:00:59:

I have here Brimar CV4003 with smooth plates, ribbed plates, with usual Brimar date codes, and without. A lot of variation in production.

And the CV4003 was far from the only Brimar branded 12AU7 type - there are early long plate D-getter 6067's and 12AU7's, large O-getter and small O-getter versions, short plate versions - like with Mullard, a lot of different versions. By the 1970's, with production winding down, Brimar was not alone in sometimes sourcing from foreign sources. While they seen to have been pretty good about marking 'foreign made' on such tubes, it's not always the case.

To simply say "all Brimars are very consistent" doesn't really tell the story. I agree that Brimar 12AU7 variants are all, to varying degrees, pretty good sounding tubes. But there are some which are much, much better sounding than others - and usually the better ones are earlier.

Just because2 tubes are marked Brimar CV4003 doesn't mean they sound the same. Like the Mullard box plates, where the 60's ones are practically indistinguishable from late 70's/early 80's ones - but the later ones sound rather poor, and the earlier ones are ok.

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