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Engineer Lau,the factory owner of Fullmusic told me he was a principal designer of vacuum tubes in my country before 1982.The Chinese 6n11(Ecc88),6n2(or 6n4-the better model of 6n2,usually we use it as ecc82),6n3(5670),6p14(el84) were his masterpiece.
Last week,I asked him:"Why we couldn't manufacture small signal tubes quality as good as power tubes so far?"
He told me:"Plate material."
Maybe somebody still wondering about TJ 300B,PX25,205D....the plate looks like the Pepsi can!The same thing happened to the Chinese 6n11 and 6n2......
If you found the data sheet of those,some data are diffrent with western country tubes.Always,Chinese small signal tubes takes more plate current and worse noise.Mr Lau told me he was try to fix the negative effect when tube become warmer,but carbon covered nickel plate wasn't quite reliable.So......
Chinese small signal tubes are really cheap,but it's not equal to low quality.You'd better to read the data sheet before run on them,good luck.Maybe my English crappy,but it's my second turn only,see,I got blood on underwear......I'm not a virgin anylonger......
Follow Ups:
These are broad generalizations based not on facts but on the out-dated opinions and oversimplified thinking of Mr. Lau and yourself. Many, many wrong assumptions but here are the biggest-- First, 20 years has passed since the time you speak of. Second, Chinese tube factories went from having NO market share in the Western world to supplying OEM stock tubes to many fine audio companies' equipment-- just one example is the geat Antique Sound Lab "Hurricane" 200 watt monoblocks which have the Shuguang KT88-98 output tube; I spoke with a distributor of this brand and was told that they are having very few tube failures, around 5-10% in the first 90 days. Third, China now supplies a significant portion of OEM tubes for guitar amplifiers-- perhaps the toughest market to break into-- and Groove Tubes calls the Shuguang 12AX7B "the finest, most consistent in quality, and quietest 12AX7 made by anyone." That pretty much discards the "Chinese small tubes are weak" The Shuguang 5AR4 and KT66 are great tubes, and at the price are a miracle. As for Shuguang KT88-98, This is the best sounding KT88 on the market today; I have tried them all over the last few years. Only KT88-98 Shuguang has full, textured mids that are anywhere close to Gold Lion KT88s. The Russian KT88s by Electro-Harmonix are bright and a bit thin (great bass and extremely durable, though)and Svetlana's ("C") are undynamic and bloated with no treble. Fourth, you cannot use one example from one factory to condemn (or praise) Chinese tubes in general. There are at least 5 tube factories in China; some made much worse tubes than others-- that is still true today. Shuguang group makes great tubes. The smaller factories collectively called "Sino Dawn" are sometimes less good. I'm not saying that in 1982 most Chinese tubes were poor; In 1982 Mullard, GEC/M-O Valve, GE-JAN, Brimar, Dutch Philips and possibly even WE plus MANY more great tube manufacturers were still making great tubes--China did not compete in ANY WAY with these companies; nobody would want inferior products when Mullard etc easily available. Finally China was not the unrestricted market it is today-- few Chinese tubes, if any, made it out of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. China had virtually no consumer market and relatively high import tariffs(compared to the West)and so ANY electrical product was better than none... with the costs of Western products high, Chinese tube factory owners knew they had a guarnteed market for their tubes and thus paid no attention to quality whatsoever-- the cheap Televisions and radios and the tubes in them were all that most consumers could afford. Finally, I have only heard the Tianjen 300B at a friends', but I thought they were fantastic!
It's takes 20mins to Lau's Fullmusic factory from my family as if riding pushbike...;D
I was talking about those old model 9pins or 7pins small looking vacuum tubes,as 6n1-6n8p,6j1-6j4,but not new designed shuguang ecc83...,most 9pin tubes were made in Beijing factroy.Now they called Jing Dong Fang,a laptop computer dealer.
Jing Dong Fang: http://www.boem.com.cn/
In China,VT factories were directly under control of PLA,workers were working for the "project" not the "market",so most vacuum tubes were made for army using.That's mean nothing but long life and reliable.
If you consider all about,a naked nickel plate design is unique but your only choice,which passes long life test,low noice,reliable and works well in bad enviroment,but,just a little bit diffrent with western tubes----personality.....not exactlly bad,but you need to read the data sheet.
To sum up,I think new model Chinese power tubes such as KT88,KT100,EL34,300B are lots better than Russian and Dutch NOS tubes,I promise.
Both of you fellows offer thorough and refreshing views of the various tubes and qualities, also pointing to some historic types. I too have found varying quality among the most well respected "classic" producers product and modern Chinese and Russian types. The Russian tubes can be some of the most irregular, but some are quite nice. I like the 6550EH both for sound and durability, but also find the Chinese KT88 very sweet and musical if a bit more fragile. I have shocked more than one customer by replacing Telefunken 12AX7 tubes with Chinese types which produced a lower noise and more extended high frequency response. That's not everyone's cup of tea and certainly there are no bragging rights or stories about how a unique, vintage pair was aquired at great expense, but for their price they can be amazing!
BTW, if you can master English grammer, no one will ridicule you!
-Bill
Thanks for this report on your conversation with Mr. Lau. I hope good plate material will be found soon.
Hello ,'Maybe my English crappy,but it's my second turn only,see,I got blood on underwear......I'm not a virgin anylonger......'
I hope losing your 'tube hymen' was not too painful .
cheers
How a tube got experienced......
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