How expensive are best NOS tubes ? And how difficult to find ?


Phono stages, preamps and power amps. Any non-Chinese adequate substitutes? I know that if you have Lamm, Vladimir has a few sets of Russian tubes in stock for each particular unit, and it is not really expensive to retube them. But if you have, say, VAC or CAT or Atma-Sphere and want best longest lasting and most reliable tubes, what then ? Don't ask me why not Chinese, I can't talk about it here except that I don't trust their quality control.
inna

Showing 4 responses by tomic601

Inna
yea probably some coloration trades taking place like swapping boutique capacitor, resisters, etc.....
i was thinking a nice CA or WA red wine....
but the French gotta eat too

jl35

that is exactly how I met Andy at Vintage
i spoke with Glen at Aesthetix about potential tuberolling in my Pandora DAC and Glen sent me to Andy

Inna
Andy really is a cool dude and can tell stories about sourcing good stock - that itself is like a global
episode of American Pickers

it does or at least has helped me to build a relationship with a trusted source - Andy for me and start to lay wines into the cellar for drinking later to follow thru on my prior analogy - I have 4 Tube components so I have a few and importantly a path to move along...
Like wine
some amazing stuff for $30 a bottle
andmarginal returns above that...
but drinking $300 stuff is sure fun

i think the ARC approach is prudent given installed base of products vs future sales
but rolling can still improve the product
try a Tung Sol in the power supply for a significant upgrade over factory stock....