Welcome Guest! Be sure you know and follow the Phorum Rules before posting. Thank you and Enjoy! (January 12) x

Thread Closed
Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

What are the best tubes to use?
#2

There are what we in the radio hobby call "Audiophools" (audiophiles) that will swear up and down that one brand of tube is better then another, or that NOS American, British, or European makes are better then the Russian or Chinese types for sound. What it really boils down to is having two tubes as a matched pair, same type, same emission, same brand, with the same suffix like is there is an "A" after the "G" or "GT" in fact having both of the same brand may not be that important so much as the emission of each tube being within a certain range of the other. In the case of Philco most of their tubes were either made by National Union or Sylvania, Sylvania also made tubes for Zenith, so a Zenith, A Philco, and a Sylvania marked tube could very likely be from the same source. There are some Audiophools that get obsessed with production runs, date codes, and even the colour of the plate inside, in truth I do not know of any evidence other then anecdotal that supports this. I think the condition of the components in the surrounding circuitry will have more of an impact, leaky condensers or resistors that have drifted in value can throw tube biases way off. Sometimes it's a matter of the speaker, it's size, condition, and quality, hook up a decent six inch speaker in place of a four incher on an AC/DC set and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Used tubes are fine, if they test good, in fact used tubes that are known to be good have less of a chance of failure then a NOS tube since they are already broken in. As for stocking replacements, you can do so but there really is no hurry unless there is a catastrophic failure like a condenser shorting out, with the amount of use that a restored old radio gets it will take a long time to wear the tubes out. If there are a few tubes that are a little weak or borderline on emission then it might make some sense to replace them if only to boost performance.
Best Regards
Arran


Messages In This Thread
What are the best tubes to use? - by shaler78 - 02-05-2009, 12:52 AM
Re: What are the best tubes to use? - by Arran - 02-05-2009, 02:36 AM



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)
[-]
Recent Posts
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
Or you could just square the current :lol: As for the values, they are dependent on the 1 or 2-speaker system. The...morzh — 05:46 PM
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
If you know the fc resistance you can use 120 ma nominal current through the resistor to get the voltage drop then calcu...RodB — 05:21 PM
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
Thanks Mike. I at least know why it is there if I don't fully understand it. I see where you talk about a cap and resist...dconant — 04:49 PM
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
Well, this cap you showed cannot possibly, due to the way it is constructed, be 1000pF (0.001). It can be in tens of pF....morzh — 03:13 PM
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
I have two schematics for this radio one shows the 47 block (126-226) and the other (121-221) does not. My radio does no...dconant — 02:32 PM
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
No, that cannot be the 47. The 47 is a regular backelite block cap. Look at the chassis picture, it is shown there. Rig...morzh — 01:45 PM
Philco 91 Restore Code ??
I have changed the title of this thread from Philco 91 Schematic. I have gone through most of the cap replacements. I...dconant — 01:26 PM
462ron
Here is an online transistor substitution site… Ron462ron — 08:44 AM
1930s Stewart-Warner Tombstone Radio need help identifying model number
One way to repair a broken wire on a coil is to take a copper strand out of some 18 gauge electrical cord, make a &quo...captainclock1988 — 12:55 AM
B&K 1077B no video
Hello Tim, I once had a Jcpenny 13inch tv /monitor built by NEC come into my repairshop it would start acting up at tim...radiorich — 10:59 PM

[-]
Who's Online
There are currently 3624 online users. [Complete List]
» 4 Member(s) | 3620 Guest(s)
AvatarAvatarAvatarAvatar

>