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Best place to buy vintage tubes?

seanrr

seanrr

Well-Known Member
Hi all - I need a couple of vintage (ideally NOS) 2A3 tubes, and I started looking at a couple tube websites. Any recommendations for the best? I have seen audiotubes.com and vacuumetube.com. They seem fairly reasonable. Are they trustworthy? Other places you like to buy vintage tubes aside from that auction site or in barter town?
 
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vacuumtubes.net has good prices and likely largest tube stock in the world. The JJ 2A3-40 is reported to outperform any NOS.
 
seanrr said:
Hi all - I need a couple of vintage (ideally NOS) 2A3 tubes, and I started looking at a couple tube websites. Any recommendations for the best? I have seen audiotubes.com and vacuumetube.com. They seem fairly reasonable. Are they trustworthy? Other places you like to buy vintage tubes aside from that auction site or in barter town?
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Please define "best" !

-lowest price ?
-best support/warranty ?
-fastest delivery ?

You may pick one or maybe 2 above but not three.
 
I've bought many vintage tubes from The Tube Store and Tube Depot and like their service but I don't think either has NOS 2A3's at the moment. Tube Depot carries some very nice high-end 2A3's & 300B's, but they ain't cheap to buy.
 
I have vintage RCA 2a3's but prefer the sound of the far cheaper Shuguang 2a3c. You can buy the Shuguangs new on ebay for $100 a pair. The Shuguang Black Bottle Treasures are said to be even better but they aren't cheap. The Psvane Black Bottles are also highly regarded but are even more expensive. The Shuguangs are also larger than most NOS 2a3 tubes.
 
Although the 2a3 power tubes are important the signal tubes is where I'd spend my money. They can offer the most dramatic effect.
 
Every tube I have bought thus far has been from Barter Town. I can't imagine I will ever get any from another place.
 
www.tctubes.com

for sure

I've been to the shop they operate out of in St. Paul, Minnesota. A husband/Wife run it. Great people with great tubes. They test all on a nice pair of Amplitrex testers. Call em
 
Poultrygeist said:
Although the 2a3 power tubes are important the signal tubes is where I'd spend my money. They can offer the most dramatic effect.
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Do you have a favorite 12AT7 tube that would make the difference in a bottlehead stereomour?

Also, you do think that the Shunguang 2A3C tubes are better than the vintage ones? I have heard that before, and I may need to look into it - would you say ebay is a trustworthy source?
 
I've purchased close to 100 valves on Ebay years ago (Before Ebay mandate paypal as their source of payment) with no issues whatsoever. However, I knew exactly what I wanted which makes a huge difference than someone having no clue what they need.

Best Regards,
 
Elliot Thompson said:
I've purchased close to 100 valves on Ebay years ago (Before Ebay mandate paypal as their source of payment) with no issues whatsoever. However, I knew exactly what I wanted which makes a huge difference than someone having no clue what they need.
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I have bought plenty from ebay as well. I just meant specifically with this Shunguang 2A3C tube mentioned above. I have heard some people say that there are different qualities of these high priced Chinese tubes depending upon where you pick them up. However, I am also very interested in the question of whether or not this new tube is really better than NOS tubes. For most tubes, I assume NOS is better since that has been my experience, but I notice that many sing the praises of this 2A3C tube from Shunguang.
 
I don't think you are going to find a good, reasonably priced, source for OS - let alone NOS - 'vintage' 2A3s. Everyone knows what they are worth and there are many who are willing to pay huge for them - supply and demand.

I primarily use 2A3 amps and don't sweat this too much though - I picked up some old stuff when (if?) it turned up and really like the old RCAs I have but, there are new production 2A3s readily available that sound pretty damn good - even mediocre 2A3 tubes sound pretty damn good. :)

I think the suggestion of the Shuguang 2A3C is a very good one - I use these daily and don't feel the need to pop in those RCAs that often. I bought mine from an online retailer but they are widely available - a google search for Shuguang 2A3C will give you all kinds of info and sources.
 
The best sounding 12AT7 I've found for my Bottlehead 2a3 is the Mullard made NOS CV4024 and they are still affordable. I preferred them over RCA clear tops and Amperex orange globes. I bought them from an ebay dealer with high feedback scores and lots of sales. I buy most tubes that way, although the Shuguangs may have come from a Canadian company. I don't know why anyone would not buy off ebay as you get your money back if the product is not as advertised.

The Shuguang 2a3c beat out my RCAs, Sovteks and Valve Arts. I've never heard the JJ 2a3 but they get good reviews. I had two JJ EL-84's that popped. Visually the Shuguang is a gorgeous tube with it's taller, wider bottle and white base. The others look very plain jane in comparison. I would go with the Shuguang 2a3c vs the cheaper Shuguang 2a3. The Treasures with their smoked black bottles don't look as good IMO but for their higher price I would expect them to perform better.
 
seanrr said:
I have bought plenty from ebay as well. I just meant specifically with this Shunguang 2A3C tube mentioned above. I have heard some people say that there are different qualities of these high priced Chinese tubes depending upon where you pick them up. However, I am also very interested in the question of whether or not this new tube is really better than NOS tubes. For most tubes, I assume NOS is better since that has been my experience, but I notice that many sing the praises of this 2A3C tube from Shunguang.
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I would imagine it depends on what type of equipment you are using the valve on. Older valves tend to have a high tolerance of over voltage which many old valve amplifiers offered pending on the make/model. Upon viewing my old Tung-Sol 1943 valve book, the chart shows the 2A3 managing a plate voltage of 500 volts despite being rated only 300.

My old valve receiver from the early 1950’s that use 6V6 in a push-pull fashion is feeding each valve 325 volts a plate. This is higher than the manufacture’s rating of the 6V6 in a push-pull configuration. It too offers a tolerance of 500 volts (plate) on its chart.

There is a video on you tube (I don’t recall where) that a gentleman fed 1000 volts to a 2A5 or 2A3 with no issues. I have no idea where the valves that are designed today stand on over voltage tolerance as I only use valves dating from 1950 – 1940.

Best Regards,
 
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