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Is there a worthy 6922 presently made?

Why hasn't any tube manfacturer designed a good sounding 6922 tube? The paucity of decent designs only fuels the exorbitant price gouging the tube dealers are doing with NOS 6922/6DJ8.

I think it is pretty universally accepted among tube fans that the Sovtek 6922 is a dependable & strong tube, but a sterile, thin, & dead sounding device. Some have praised the JJ 6922, while others have proclaimed it rather mediocre, and some have blown up their amplifiers, like an ARC owner who burned out parts of his VT-100's circuit board when attempting to substitute the JJ's for the stock Sovteks in the input stage.

Sovtek's owner, New Sensor, has come out with a "new" 6922 in the form of an Electroharmonix 6922, with claims it is significantly better than the Sovtek. But some have said it is nearly the identical tube and sounds nearly identical. Audio Research claims it is a better tube, but.....

Why hasn't Svetlana designed a 6922? Or someone else? We are left with two tubes made by the same manufacturer, and one from Czechoslovakia. That's it! Any thoughts or experiences?
kevziek

Showing 4 responses by eagle

eagle
154 posts
 
LOL Maxgain, I agree the Electroharmonix 6922 gold pin sound great in my cdp compared to the other tubes I have tried including NOS Amperex, Siemens, Telefunken, new and nos Sovtek, 6h23eb and some others. It's a crapshoot when buying "NOS" and I think a large part are really "UOS". It seemed like there were trade-offs when comparing the NOS with each other anyway. Some had better bass control, some had warmer mids, etc.

Also, it was a concern knowing there are limits to real NOS availability. It's good to know there is an excellent alternative of new production tubes because I want to keep the tube cdp in my system. In my experience, there's no way any of the NOS I have heard are worth five times and more over the cost of the Electroharmonix 6922 gold pin.
eagle
154 posts
 
The majority of the new tube production is sold to musicians and related gear. The sales of tubes for Hifi are small by comparison. Like audiophiles, many musicians realized the sonic benefits of some NOS tubes and it was just a matter of time until tube manufacturers found it profitable to emulate the qualities of those old tubes. With proper designs, materials, and production techniques, there is no reason why new tubes will not be as good or better than the best of the NOS tubes, if they aren't already.
Without the musician's demand, it's very possible there would be no companies producing new tubes and the NOS supply would have already been depleted.

Newbee, Because of the good results from the new EH6922, I want to also try the JJ E88CC and Ei 6DJ8.
eagle
154 posts
 
Mikesinger, When I said:
"With proper designs, materials, and production techniques, there is no reason why new tubes will not be as good or better than the best of the NOS tubes, if they aren't already."
I meant "in some cases" for some tube models.

I think other tubes are being used more than the 6DJ8/6922 type for new equipment applications in the music industry.
This is good and bad. Good because not as many musicians are tapping into the NOS 6DJ8 type supply and bad because the lower demand in the largest market could slow improvements in new production tubes.

John_tracy: Billions and Billions of 6DJ8? If that is factual there is no scarcity of NOS tubes and the price gouging is even more reprehensible. Where are they?
eagle
154 posts
 
John_tracy: Thanks for the clarification and I agree the tube market these days is not as large as it once was. However, the market for the tubes used in guitar amps, recording equipment, and hifi components has seen steady growth each year since the late 80's and is not an insignificant market as a whole. Although current manufacturers of tube equipment are the ones buying most of the new production tubes, the end consumer these days has higher expectations for sound quality than in the hayday of tubes. I think that demand will be met with even better sounding new production tubes and we are now seeing that trend.
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