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Inspire by Dennis Had Enjoying Vacuum Tube Audio

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  #6761  
Old 03-12-2022, 09:28 PM
PaulInWA PaulInWA is offline
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Originally Posted by Bombadil View Post
Famed amp builder and tweaker Dave Gillespie has raved about the new Tung-sol 7581a. Put it through extensive bench tests and found it to be quite good. I'm tempted to get some, but I really like my Gold Lion KT66 and just don't know if the 7581a would be an improvement, given that they are from the same factory and the KT66 are said to be their top of the line 6L6-type.
The following is taken partially from my own notes and partially from a reply I made on Audiogon. I have never tried the KT66's and until a couple of weeks ago my experience with the Dennis Had amp was limited so take it with a grain of salt:

I had a Dennis Had Universal SET amp lying around that I had never really liked. But I got a new preamp with gain and I decided to bring the Had out and give it another go. I still didn't like it as well as my main set up, but I had read the glowing reviews of the Tung-Sol 7581A's and they sounded like just the thing to kick the Had into higher gear and at $30ish a tube they seemed cheap enough to try.

All I gain say is WOW. The 7581A's brought a ton of dynamics with strong bass and a sweet midrange and detailed highs. It sounded good enough that I decided to do some tube rolling on the 6SL7 input tube. I tried a few NOS tubes I had lying around and then decided to put in a new production Tung-Sol 6SL7. What an amazing combination. Holographic soundstage, huge dynamics, detailed with excellent everything. I'm usually very sensitive to glare and this combo had just the slightest touch of that but changing out some cables tamed that. This is an amazingly dramatic, lively presentation coming from what can't be more than an 8 watt amp. This is not a mellow, easy listening, smooth boring sound. I've tried quite a range of amplifiers and tubes and I have to say I've never heard my system sound like this. How much of that are the DIY SP14 preamp or the Cary SLP-70 preamp that I've been trying with the Dennis Had/7581A combo I can't say yet but for anyone that likes tube rolling I say the 7581A combination is a must try.

Since I wrote that I have also gotten the Tung-Sol EL34B’s and the Tung-Sol 6L6G’s. The 6L6G’s didn’t strike me as being that special. They were less dynamic than the 7581As and more rounded and mellow in sound. I didn’t really listen to them that much.

The Tung-Sol EL34B’s are a very interesting tube. They are richer, denser sounding than the 7581A’s but still dynamic with an excellent sound stage. Not as lively sounding but that is partly because the 7581A’s sound a little thin and brittle in comparison. I go back and forth about which ones I like better. I think it is likely that the EL34B’s would be my preference for vocal or acoustic music. Unclear which I would like better with electronic or jazz etc. etc.

As an aside, price gouging, at least in Tung-Sol tubes, has already started.
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  #6762  
Old 03-12-2022, 11:37 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Those Tung-sol 7581a tubes have disappeared overnight on eBay. There used to be dozens of listings. I just searched and found one, and they were advertising it as their last pair. Rather amazing how fast they have been scooped up. Or else sellers have pulled their listings, waiting to see how high prices will go.

A case of price gouging when one is sitting on a supply of tubes purchased at lower prices, then sell them for much higher prices. But that is capitalism.
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  #6763  
Old 03-13-2022, 01:24 AM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Hope Dennis has a large stock of tubes on hand.
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  #6764  
Old 03-13-2022, 12:38 PM
Simonatsea Simonatsea is offline
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Is there a technical reason my USAF 596 beats out my other rectifiers in my circa 2015 6V6’r?
I just tried my Holland 5Y3 with the 6F6 tubes and the presentation shrunk considerably to running them with the 596….
It seems to best all my other rectifiers no matter the output tubes EL84-KT90
My LP-2 seems to be the best with a 274b mesh plate(Sophia)
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  #6765  
Old 03-13-2022, 03:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombadil View Post
Hope Dennis has a large stock of tubes on hand.
Doesn't matter. Dennis will buy Chinese or other former Eastern Bloc, or whatever is available. The Nesstones he likes are Chinese....
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  #6766  
Old 03-13-2022, 05:31 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Originally Posted by Analog Addict View Post
Doesn't matter. Dennis will buy Chinese or other former Eastern Bloc, or whatever is available. The Nesstones he likes are Chinese....
I wonder how much will be available in a few months. Russian production is off-limits. Shuguang in China is reportedly at reduced, or even no, production as there are stories that they have not rebuilt from the 2019 fire. JJ reduced, or ceased, production for a while due to Covid and is reportedly months behind on back-logged orders - and this was before the Russian sanctions.

Once resellers, like Nesstone, exhaust their inventories, they could see significant price hikes.

Hopefully the situation stabilizes and warehouses full of tubes come to market.
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  #6767  
Old 03-13-2022, 10:04 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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A couple of recent examples of Nesstone price changes

They offered their own label EL34, a Chinese tube, for an incredible price of $40 for a matched quad. But that has been taken off of their page.

Last week they were selling a quad of EH EL34 for $46. This week it is $66. I suspect this will be removed soon as I don't know where they are going to get EH tubes.

They are still advertising a quad of JJ KT77 for just $74. Tube Depot raised their price to $116, if you can get them. The Genalex Gold Lion KT77 jumped to $238/quad and Viva Tubes has them at $301/quad.

Last edited by Bombadil; 03-13-2022 at 10:11 PM.
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  #6768  
Old 03-16-2022, 11:55 AM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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It is a madhouse in tube land right now. Certainly not the time to be a buyer.

Tube dealers have been overrun with orders and can't meet demand. That doesn't mean they don't have tubes. Some are saying they have supply but as they sell tested tubes and matched tubes, they can't test them fast enough.

Most of the big sellers have taken online sales off line. Right now one cannot place an order with Viva Tubes, the Tube Store, Upscale Audio and more. Nesstone is still taking orders but has almost no tubes in stock. Tube Depot is online and offering a limited selection of tubes, they show a lot of tubes for sale, but if you click on the tube you will find most are out of stock.

Some tube equipment manufacturers have posted in online forums that their tube suppliers have dried up and they can no longer get tubes.

Hopefully this will all get sorted out.

And given how many tubes this group rolls, I doubt anyone here is short.

Last edited by Bombadil; 03-16-2022 at 11:58 AM.
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  #6769  
Old 03-16-2022, 02:22 PM
Isaacc7 Isaacc7 is offline
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I paid for an order with Billington last week before all the craziness started. Hopefully that order will go out as expected. I have another dealer I deal with that has not responded to me in weeks. He is a much smaller dealer so normally I wouldn’t expect him to be affected by whatever tube mania sweeps through the audiophile world. This does feel different though. Oh well, Like was said, it’s not like I’m wanting for tubes to use!
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  #6770  
Old 03-16-2022, 08:59 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Viva Tubes raised their prices by 300% to 400% today.

Hopefully this is temporary insanity.

A quad of KT170s are now over $2000.
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