6AK5's?

Nixxuz

Super Member
So I have one of those cheesy little 6j1 preamps that I use in my digital chain. I have been running some GE JAN 5654's which sound lots better than the stock Chinese tubes.

Anyway, I decided to order a set of what are supposedly NOS Tung Sol 6AK5's from, supposedly, 1945. These would be the oldest tubes I have ever personally owned if true. Also, the claim is that they are in original packaging. Unopened for 73 years. And they aren't very spendy for what they purport to be.

So I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with any or all of these factors. Thanks in advance!
 
I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but just be careful about from whom you buy. There are a lot of shysters out there who will lie about a product just to make it interesting enough to buy. If it's a 1945 tube maybe there is a date code on it that the seller can share with you. At the very least ask the seller how s(he) knows the tube is from 1945. If it's genuine... great find ! It's probably true even with tubes that "they just don't make 'em like they used to!" Thorne
 
Well, they have almost 1000 positive feedback on that auction site, and all the reviews I saw for them dealt with tubes and tube gear...I did contact them about the date though.

Here is the site image;

s-l500.jpg
 
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Never pay a lot of money for a common tube just because there is purported to be something "special" about it. There is nothing special about a tube made in 1945, except that this tube was first released about 1945. That said, if it was released in late 1940s, then manufacturing would have been much more routine and any manufacturing difficulties or engineering changes to the technical specifications would have been worked out by the late 1950s or early 1960s potentially making the later tubes more reliable and technically better.
 
It wasn't really super expensive or anything. I just thought it was neat to own something that old. If I don't like it, well I still have my GE JAN 5654's.
 
Most of what I've read about old tubes is positive. I bought some old tubes just because they are old and I wanted to see if the myth (to me) is true. I think the truth lies more in that there are good tubes old and new and there are not as good tubes old and new. Just like cars - some people get lemons made by one manufacturer and others get great cars from that same manufacturer.
 
I was just seeing if anyone had any experience with them. For the life of me, I went to a site just recently that talks about the history of all sorts of tube grouped by manufacturer...black background is all I can recall.
 
The 6AK5 is a very early miniature, and has never really been used for audio. It's a radio frequency preamp tube which was absolutely obsolete by the end of the 1950s. I believe the 1945 date, since this was a common tube in the war, and I also believe prices won't ever go too crazy, because the only reason to choose this tube for audio is low cost, there's much better choices for performance. Have a look at the pentode curves, it's so non linear you'd need a boat load of negative feedback to make it sound okay. Same for its original RF application, progress was fast in that arena, there's a whole array of tubes which beat the 6AK5 which can be had for Peanuts. A cascade connected twin triode would beat the 6AK5 hands down for noise performance in an RF application.

I think the reason the Chinese decided to use these in their amps, is essentially it's a very inexpensive way to include a tube in an amp.
 
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Well, they have almost 1000 positive feedback on that auction site, and all the reviews I saw for them dealt with tubes and tube gear...I did contact them about the date though.

Here is the site image;

s-l500.jpg
Hello, this is actually my listing! :)
 
Most of what I've read about old tubes is positive. I bought some old tubes just because they are old and I wanted to see if the myth (to me) is true. I think the truth lies more in that there are good tubes old and new and there are not as good tubes old and new. Just like cars - some people get lemons made by one manufacturer and others get great cars from that same manufacturer.
Hi Thorne, he's asking about my listing. I'm the one you recently purchased the Tung Sol 5751 tubes from.
 
Let us know how they sound. I'm using a set of 5654's in my little single ended hybrid headphone amp and they sound much better than the 6j1's.
 
Right ! The dirty pins that needed to be cleaned. Too funny. No offense, kmolles. Let's see. The Tung-Sol 5751's were at the suggestion of Larry when I wanted to replace 12AX7 with 12AT7 (which, I was told, would put too much pressure on my power transformer). Actually I think I bought a pair of 5751WA tubes from July 1956 (at least that's how they were advertised). I used them in my 500-C positions V12 and V13 which is the phase inverter stage. They're still in there so I like them. I like a relatively flat frequency response with a bass push which I get via the tone controls. New Sovtek 12AX7LPS worked well there too.
 
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Let us know how they sound. I'm using a set of 5654's in my little single ended hybrid headphone amp and they sound much better than the 6j1's.
I'll be running them initially in a little cheap 6j1 pre, and then when I get a pot change done on a Little Dot Mk2, ill be using that.
 
I have the LD MK3. I run a matched pair of cryo Sovtek 6H30Pi-EB (AMAZING!) in the power positions and old Tung-Sol JTL 5654's (Jun 1958) in the driver positions. I've had a few really good-sounding tubes in the driver positions including Mullard M8100's and Sylvania 5654's.
 
Just my opinion from tube collecting and use for years now.....not all older (nos) tubes will sound "better" than current production (although most do, in my experience)....they will however last much longer if operated inside their designed parameters. One example I run of a current production tube that just kills it, is the Genalex KT88....Sound fantastic and I have two years of constant use and they are still strong as all get out!
 
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Just my opinion from tube collecting and use for years now.....not all older (nos) tubes will sound "better" than current production (although most do, in my experience)....they will however last much longer if operated inside their designed parameters. One example I run of a current production tube that just kills it, is the Genelux KT88....Sound fantastic and I have two years of constant use and they are still strong as all get out!
Is there a chance you mean a "Genalex"?
 
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