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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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In Reply to: The high price of NOS Tubes posted by Micron on January 27, 2003 at 14:31:55:
I see no other cause other than the plague of "collectability".
Collecting is at best a passive pursuit and you dont have to wait
for a regional show or swap meet to participate ; you can collect
every night of the week by watching and bidding on tubes. It's the
perfect hobby for bored high-income individuals with high disposable
income.The unfortunate thing about collecting is that large amounts of
stock are never used in circuits. The collectors fill their display
boxes with them and look at them and tell everyone else how they have
eight of this red base and twenty of that square getter.They dont even design anything with them. I'm tired of hearing posts
from people who pontificate about the merits of trying a 1938 vintage
6SN7 in their $9,000 SET product and $1200 cables.I wont even think about ever trying to build a circuit based on
the 45, the 26, the VT-52 because I dont want to go through the
hassle of dealing with the high prices or the people who fancy
themselves a 'boutique brokers'. To hell with that, unless I can
design something with recent Euro or Chinese production I'm not even
interested at this point.The collection craze goes beyond tubes... Just watch what people
pay for old output transformers on ebay.. Utter crap that is barely
fit for a PA system closes at end-auction prices than high quality
new OPTs from Lundahl or Tango.I have literally bags full of new Sprague Vitamin Q's in the 400
and 600V range. Well over 200 of them 0.22uF, 0.47uF, 0.1uF.
I *REFUSE* to sell them. I give them away. And I only give them
away in small quantities to people that would appreciate using them.
I *REFUSE* to put hundreds of Vitamin Qs in the hands of a collector
or a "boutique broker". Same with my tubes.Some of the mainstream vendors deserve alot of credit for producing
stuff for us. Particularly Hammond... Despite the snootiness people
have against Hammond iron - you all ought to thank your lucky stars
that they bother producing the wide range of tube compatible transformers that they have. I doubt they make much volume or margin
on their single ended transformers or chokes. They could just as
easily shut down their tube product line and focus on their core
business which im sure is switching power, industrial transformers
and specialized magnetics. The day may come when Hammond cuts back,
or ever drops audio transformers. And when that day comes, I'm sure
the collectors will be waiting with baited breath hoping to fetch
thousands of dollars for a pair of transformers that had once been
poo-pood in favour of some silver-wired handwound-by-fairies-in-Elysium product that they had preferred.-- Jim
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Follow Ups
- Re: The high price of NOS Tubes - Jim Doyle 01/27/0318:11:19 01/27/03 (1)
- I would have to agree with much of what you have written. . nt - John PA 09:20:11 01/29/03 (0)
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