Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

Jim, actually I see your PO Box at your site, is it the place where I need to send the tubes?

I undusted what you are saying. It is easy to pick the obviously bad tubes but it is much more complicated to have a tube that is “a half way there” and be able via testing it to assess its sonic merit. The tubes degrade gracefully and in some instances completely unpredictably. I have seen perfectly measured (at least tranceconductance and gain) power tube that sounded extremely poor and at the same time, among the small signal tubes, I have seen burned-to-death tubes that sounded better then anything new. Go figure…

I think each tube brand/type, like humans, has own way to go out. Sure, there are some common denominators and tendencies and testers or perhaps the tracers might portray those tendencies. Still, I feel the most valuable in tube testing is not the testing procedure or testing equipment but an ability of off an individual to conduct necessary test and to intrepid the result in context of his/her auditable practice. I have very limited grip on this interpretation, probably if I use more expensive tubes then I would treat them with more respect. Still I am sure that “testing understanding” are obtainable skills and I do not mind to develop them…

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site