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In Reply to: Re: NEW PRODCTION Tung Sol 6550s?!? posted by ross14 on October 2, 2004 at 07:45:11:
For all practical purposes IT IS true-- even if this ebay seller printed the boxes and re-labeled the obviously Russian/Sovtek 6550s him/herself, (I don't think that is the case here; I think these are legit.... but who can be sure?)there would be very little difference if a large company bought the TungSol name and had it placed on Russian or Chinese tubes. What I mean is, NO ONE will ever make a an exact replica of the TungSol 6550 that sounds and lasts like the original TungSol for any reasonable price. I know there are many folks who think that Sovtek, Electro-Harmonix, and Svetlana tubes are "the bee's knees", but let's be honest here; THEY ARE NOT. The Russian 6550s and KT88s are getting better, they are very tough tubes that don't often fail, but instead actually wear out--- this is a real accomplishment in itself, and I'm not being sarcastic here. For years new production output tubes (usually Chinese) went out with a BANG, not a wimper.... The Sovteks etc. can take as much or more punishment than the original TungSols; my quibble with them has nothing to do with durability. I just have NEVER heard anything in an amp equipped with Sovteks that even approaches NOS quality; the stereo image is basically flat, almost 2 dimensional with E-H Svetlana or Sovtek, whereas the NOS tubes have great imaging, a 3D spatial quality, ambience, and an incredible combination of real power, dynamics and punch. Add the fact that NOS TungSols resolve the finest detail in the background while producing that HUGE soundstaging in the foreground.... the whole microdynamics/macrodynamics thing... I dunno; I have to believe that the current Russian tubes are "state of the art" for MODERN Russian tube production... they have had nearly a century to get it right and are into their 2nd decade as a global tube supplier, so I just don't see a facsimile TungSol made in Russia coming down the pike. On the other hand, Ei's KT90s are remarkable, many current power triodes are fantastic (KR, AVVT, and Tianjin/Fullmusic/Chinese especially)and the KR KT88 made in the Czech Republic was incredible, if perhaps not as reliable as it could be. So.... maybe the day will come when NOS becomes irrelevant. I'm not holding my breath. It's easy to make a great directly heated triode; the physical/dimension manufacturing tolerances are enormous, etc. Getting those tetrodes and pentodes just right seems a LOT harder.
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Follow Ups
- Re: NEW PRODCTION Tung Sol 6550s?!? - g 08:27:38 10/02/04 (0)
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