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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.

 

calieng
thecarpathian's avatar
thecarpathian
6,176 posts
 

@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.

celtic66
1,945 posts
 

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.

calieng OP
203 posts
 

@audition__audio 

Maximatcher II with 300B socket adapter. One tube at a time.

It supports 4 octal tubes at a time so I doubt I was taxing the power supply.

In any case even with a little voltage deviation the Psvane tested way too low. 

I ordered a Pro One Bias Probe from Eurotubes so once it arrives I will insert it between the tester and the socket adapter and get a verification on plate voltage and current from the tester. I have an older bias probe from WeberVST but it is acting up so did not want to try that one.

 

invalid
1,378 posts
 

@devinplombier  

I'm sure if you measured the transistors in an amplifier you would find deviations in those as well. These tube testers are not that accurate like people think they are.  The best way to match or test the performance of a tube is in the circuit they will be used in. 

pcrhkr's avatar
pcrhkr
332 posts
 

I think the company ripped you off. They apparently do not care about losing customers. I learned in retail many years ago. It's better to lose money on one customer and gain a reputation in an industry as giving top notch service. That one customer you lose money on will redeem when that customer comes back again. Not to mention free advertising with all that persons audiophile friends. Sorry for your bad vendor experience.

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