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Sylvania: Pins steel and gold

Posted by Bambi B (A) on December 16, 2006 at 10:39:16

In Reply to: Sylvania 5751 3 mica black plate square getter gold pins? posted by posbwp55@msn.com on December 15, 2006 at 21:37:11:

posbwp,

There are both steel pin and gold pin versions of the Sylvania 5751 but the earlier triple mica, black plate, square getter tube had steel pins whether "Gold Brand" or military issue. I absolutely love this tube- it does eveything well, and the super-refined, open sound reminds me of the Tesla copy of the Telefunken ECC803S. -I wonder is anyone has ever listened to this one comparitatively to the original ECC803S? The 3 mica black plate 5751s I have are military "JHS" gold print ones with steel pins. It appears it was the later grey plate, Gold Brand -consumer- version that had gold pins. See the 5751 section of "Joe's Tube Lore" in the FAQ section of this site for a thorough look at the Sylvania 5751's as well as the others. I tried four 5751s and the experimentation ended instantly when I heard the triple mica black plate Sylvania. BTW, the second place was the 2- mica black plate RCA- and it is very, very good.

By the way, the late 2 mica, grey plate, steel pin Sylvania 5751 is not bad at all- as is the contemporary GE- very nice bass. It's a shame that only two years ago dealers sold these by the pile for $12 and now,...

I have a number (30) of Sylvania Gold Brand tubes- and the apparently same tube was sold with steel or gold pins: GB-6201 (12AT7WA) both steel and gold pins, GB-6136 (6AU6A) steel and gold. The GB-1252 was Sylvania's premium 6U8A and has gold pins but appears identical to the Sylvania "Communications Quality" 6678 with steel pins. The 6678 is the military 6U8 and here again the consumer version is gold pinned and military issue has steel pins. I can't see any difference in construction between the GB-6136, GB-6201s, GB-1252 (and 6678) gold or steel pin versions. I've not compared the sonics of the 6AU6 and 6U8 types, but I'm quite sure the earlier, gold pin GB-6201 is a bit nicer- deeper.

The choices made by Sylvania as to steel or gold pins seemed slightly arbitrary, but judging only from seeing a variety it seems it's the Gold Brand tubes in the older "lightning bolt" boxes that have the gold pins. -So far, I've never gotten GB's in the later box with gold pins.

Triple mica, black plate 5751's with gold pins are something I've never seen, but as they seem to have had an evolving policy going between steel and gold- it seems entirely possible.

Though I like to see gold pin tubes as a sign of a maker's premium line, the 3 mica, black plate Sylvania 5751 is one case where the steel pin tube is just fine.

Without being very conscious of it, it seems I've ended up gravitating more to Sylvania among US tubes (Sylvania really got the 12AT7 right) and the 3 mica 5751 rivals my other favourite 12AX7 the Siemens triple mica E83CC.

Cheers,

Bambi B

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