Vacuum Tube Snake Oil Salesmen
Just a mini rant to complain about vacuum tube suppliers (not all but most) and their false advertising.
I ordered a set of 4 matched 2A3 Acme tubes direct from PSVane for my Woo Audio WA33 as an upgrade. They cost close to $1k all together.
When I got them I checked on my MaxiMatcher2. The boxes said 65mA but with correct operating voltage and bias set on the tester I could only get 2 of them up to 43mA. One other read 39mA. And the last one was an internal fault short which could have damaged my amp had I not checked them.
I asked to return one "Matched" set for replacement. The PSVane customer service would only offer to send me one tube and not a matched pair. They would not pay return shipping to return one set. Instead they demanded I smash the bad tube and send them a picture. Has anyone ever smashed a large vacuum tube with a hammer and seen where all the pieces of glass fly to? I said no way. I will throw it out or return it but I am not going to risk cutting my hand doing that. So they refused to send a replacement.
While I had the Maximatcher out I decided to go thru some other tubes I had in my spares box to check them (purchased before I had the tube tester). I could not believe the results. Some tubes matched by well known vendors were off by as much as 30% from each other.
It is really a good investment to get a tube tester if you will be a regular user of tube amps.
If you must buy PSVane then get them from Amazon and not direct so you have some safety to return them.
Here is the PSVANE 2A3C data that I found:- (I believe it is quite different from the previous post). Anyway, some tolerance will happen but it is more important both tubes are matched with the same reading. DC Parameters |
Exactly. While Ray Tubes may not want people knowing this and PSVANE is not advertising this, however the idea is the better testing tubes with a different label, better packing, backing, support, is also what you are paying for - hopefully so. They've only been out a year or so, need more time to know if they are truly better or not. Meanwhile I keep a few sets and spares of standard PSVANEs. Will know more in the next few years if the production runs since the pandemic are truly better or not. |
Reading this thread i almost regret the purchase of the very good low cost Douk T8 pro as tubes pre-amp/E.Q. It work well since almost a year now... It improve the Edifier active speaker ...I use it as tube pre-amp for the Fosi SK1 with my secondary headphone, the sextett ... I vouch few years ago to never buy tubes again... I lied to myself or i forgote my promise... Anyway the Douk cost peanuts and is very good for a low cost system... My sound experience is more analog than digital.... |
@larsman @ghdprentice , Ah, yes my friends, both valid points. I broke my own rule by hastily posting. I should have written: "In my experience" I’ve had nothing but good luck in years of buying exclusively nos tubes from reputable dealers. |
Owned plenty of VTL, Manley and de Havilland tube gear. Loved it all. But in the end I tired of chasing tubes, the really expensive kind like 300B. Gracefully left for solid state and did not look back. Yes, yes, the romance and palpable feel of tubes. I get it, but morphed into a more dynamic immediate attack listener paired with active transducers. Left one love for another. No hard feelings from departure. Best of luck. |
