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6SN7 Tung Sol Reissue Mullard 12AX7 any comments?

Does anybody have any experience with re-issue Tung SOl 6SN7's??
How about re issued Mullards 12AX7's.
They're being copied to the smallest details (they say) or the opriginals in original Reflektor Plant in russia.
Just wantd to now If I should stop looking to spend small fortunes on NOS.
Are these guys a solution??
KT-88 GEC being copied also Golden Lions, any thoughts.
I headrd the guys at Sophia ELEctrric (famous for their 300B tube) are bringing form Shuguang a copy of teh GEC that kiks butt . .. .
I'm using their awesome KT-88-98 and like it very much so. . . the promise of something even better is very appealing to me, especially when looking at original GEC tubes beaten to a pulp by MacIntosh amplifiers for sale for many hundreds of buck sometimes even K$ . . .
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Wanted to give you a heads up on the new generation of chinese amplifiers tubed they are a fantastic value at their current prices, just make sure use them with a variac adn to 110 VOLts otherwise tube plate voltage is too high and destroys tubes in months.
my grid here is 119 to 124 volts and that is too much for these amps.

Thanks for the help;
God Bless!

Gonzalo
128x128gonzalo
mcfarland
356 posts
 
Do you really believe that the Reflektor plant retooled everything just to produce a few "Mullards", and, even if they did (HIGHLY UNLIKELY), do you imagine, even for a moment that they use the same materials and can pull identical purity of vacuum to the original? OR. . . do you think that they might just pull a few of their 12ax7's from the production line that produces the shiney copper pinned version of the tubes, equip them with a "Mullard" label, package them with a special paper wrap, put them in a "Mullard reissue box", charging a few bucks more for them along the way? Same goes for the 6sn7's. I've never seen the Tung-Sol "re-issued" version of the 6sn7, and would be curious if it were the round plated version (if it were, that would be well worth the listen, I suppose). IMHO I think they just label and package what they already make. That's salesmanship, I guess.
honest1
586 posts
 
I've been considering trying the reissue 6sn7s, but looking at the pictures, they look just like the regular Electro Harmonix tubes. They do not look like the round plate tubes. I can't tell if there is any difference internally. New Sensor doesn't say a whole lot about its tubes. I do remember a quote from the American owner saying the release of these tubes was delayed over a year because they wnated to get them just right. I have searched for posts on AA, and there are a lot of people saying they are not really copies of Tung-Sols, just relabelled EHs but if you read closely, these people have not generally tried the tubes out. I think there was one person who said he had tried them out, and heard little difference between them and the regular EH tubes. On the other hand, there were a number of posts saying the 12ax7 reissues were the best new production 12ax7s available.
thorman
1,262 posts
 
Just another way to try to baffle people into thinking they have some new worlds best new tube,by putting a different label on it....Just my opinion
ckorody
643 posts
 
Hi - I have a set of the reissue KT-88s and they are a real nice tube. Haven't bothered looking beyond them. No durability issues after 4 months of fairly heavy use.

These guys went to a lot of trouble to sweat the cosmetics. I kind of think they are like the Chinese - they are establishing the right to charge market to premium prices through quality production.

McFarland is right that it is very difficult to reproduce a 60 year old product exactly - like the beer guys say its the water... and there is a lot of craftsmanship that has been lost.

The Audio Asylum Tubes Forum is a good place to look, they also have a SET Forum.
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