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Two excellent NOS 5687 sources......

I just re-discovered the beauty of 5687s when I resurrected my long-hibernating ModWright Sony 9100ES player. As a result, I decided to look for some new, nicely matched NOS babies to add to my old stash of 5687s.

Here is what I discerned after spending a few days researching dealers, their respective reputations, checking prices and contacting those that I was interested in possibly dealing with.

IMHO, a fine eBay source I found for matched pairs/quads of great sounding mid-1950s Tung-Sol black plate 5687s is "soundideasfl" (aka, Sound Ideas, in Gainesville, Florida; 352-378-0192), who very recently sent me a matched quad of those 1950s NOS 5687 T-S BPs.

Excellent value tubes, top-drawer service and true concern for customer satisfaction made me very happy to deal with this Florida-based US dealer (and you can see some of these Tung-Sols on offer here: http://stores.ebay.com/soundideasfl/?_dmd=1&_nkw=5687)

The guys at Sound Ideas (Ken and Rob) are really nice to work with, super responsive to all my Qs, excellent packers and really fast shippers, and absolutely stand 100% behind their tubes (as I found out when one of the T-S quad went microphonic, and they not only replaced the tube, they sent a matched PAIR, here to New Zealand, at no cost to me. Now, THAT is real service!)

My other very strong recommendation for well-matched NOS 5687s is via an award-winning tube electronics designer, Damon Coffman, of "Coffman Labs", who I was referred to by none other than ModWright's owner, Dan Wright himself, with his highest recommendation. That was an excellent referral! (Here is the Coffman Labs website: http://coffmanlabs.com/) Damon has tens of thousands of 9-pins and others, but you need to e-mail him for the list, as he is primarily a tube electronics designer. But he has very nice tubes for sale, indeed.

Damon sent me out two pairs of absolutely spectacular sounding matched NOS Raytheon 5687s (copper posts, black plates/bronze plates, etc., and a SPARE matched Raytheon tube!), with the nicest original boxes and packing I think I've yet seen. Quality like this simply does NOT come cheap, and I feel very happy with my purchase, as these 5687 Raytheons are stunners (at least the first pair I've tried were. I have high hopes for the others.)

A little off-topic, but another very cool thing Damon at Coffman Labs offers his tube buyers is a neat ring-type tube damper he may start selling separately, as these are some pretty nice dampers, sonically-speaking. I have used basically just about every commercial tube damper ever made (PEARL, Mapleshade, EAT, Herbie's, etc., etc.), and ultimately found them all wanting, for one reason or another. But these Coffman Lab dampers are a little different......

The tube dampers Coffman Labs is employing appear to have a rigid coating of teflon or something quite similar over the entirety of a normal high-temp red silicon O-ring , and while getting them to slide on is challenging at first, the result seems to me to really work well.

I am very impressed with these Coffman tube dampers so far. Very impressed indeed; this is what I heard:

Bass really nicely tightened up, and the midrange became more holographic and focused, with clearer details that allowed for better instrument placement around the sound stage. Dynamics also improved across the board in the lows and mids, with more of a 'gut-punch' to kick drums and large scale symphonic percussion, and more midrange presence and attack. Highs and 'air' around instruments were NOT 'lost' or otherwise rolled off into oblivion (which, sadly, was the result in my most recent experiments last year with all these various tube damper devices, and why up until today, I was no longer using any of them. Until these new Coffman Labs tube dampers came along, that is.)

Right now, I'd give the Coffman tube dampers a nice big 'two thumbs up' (no idea on cost yet, as they are not yet a product he offers, but he very recently indicated he may likely do so, if it appears a demand is there.) Assuming Damon prices them nicely, these little dampers may prove to be another excellent device in our audio 'tool chest' for getting the most we can from the valves we all love so much!

Anyway, I hope this provided some help to you.

FYI- I have ZERO affiliation or relationship with either dealer mentioned above, as I just wanted to share with you (and others) some recently discovered tube dealers that carry great examples of just what you're looking for: killer NOS 5687s!

Good luck, and let us know how your search ends up, please.

Cheers,

WS


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  • Two excellent NOS 5687 sources...... - Winston Smith 19:42:28 10/08/16 (0)

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