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  3. 126751-1659

Need help sorting some WE 5842/417A tubes

I am trying to gather a group of six Wesrwen Electric 417 A tubes for my Allnic H1500 SE II phono stage and these will be replacing the six 5842 tubes that came in the phono stage. I have just received the last two that were purchased off of ebay as the other four were, the first four were all marked straight up Western Electric 417A but the last two were sold as 417A and the pics that the seller used showed just that in the pictures but in fact they are marked Western Electric 5842 and then below that 417A. My question is can I use these two with the other four with the desired effect and are they the same? I feel the seller purposely took the pics to show just the 417A distinction to get a better asking price. Thanks all for your input.

tooblue
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
According to various references I have the 417A and 5842 are equivalent and interchangeable. And your description of the markings would seem to indicate that the two tubes were manufactured by Western Electric, although 5842s were made by several manufacturers. In any event, the tubes should certainly function properly assuming they are not weak or defective. And it could be that WE marked 417A tubes without the 5842 designation if they were manufactured before whenever the 5842 designation came into being (under which other manufacturers produced a 417A equivalent), and marked both designations subsequently.

Regards,
-- Al

tooblue OP
1,882 posts
 
Thanks Al that makes sense the two tubes in question are newer tubes by at least 10 years.

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