• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Brent Jessee of Audiotubes.com retired, Audiotubes to reopen soon under new ownership

@Mr Boochie , plus others who fear tubes are going away...They are still here to stay !
Have you priced high end, tubed audio, lately ?

There are nearly 400, 000 members at AK.
Most are aware that tubes sound great. Many say they cannot afford new tube gear.
Yet, the world of classic, vintage tube audio is very alive and well, right here, at Audiokarma.

For the DIY crowd, implementing vintage, tube audio transformers into "modern tube audio designs" is a seriously, viable audio methodology....
 
Last edited:
I bought some NOS tubes from Antique Electronics Supply a couple of years ago.

Clearly they were used tubes, one had bent pins like it had been in and out of socket a few times. All tested good on my basic tube tester.

I called them up ( after the return date) and they said that if a tube tests good, it is considered NOS.

Huh?…
 
This is Jon Oas, the current owner of AudioTubes.com


I wanted to respond personally since I've seen some of the concerns expressed here.


I understand the frustration of customers who have experienced delays in receiving an order or getting a response. There have been some orders that have taken longer than they should have, and I take responsibility for that.


Taking over AudioTubes.com has been a much larger undertaking than simply acquiring a website and continuing to ship orders. AudioTubes.com is essentially a one-person operation, although I do have an assistant who helps part-time.


One particularly substantial part of the transition has been the inventory itself. We have had to retest every individual audio tube using our computerized Amplitrex AT1000 tester. We're doing this so the entire inventory is tested consistently on the same equipment and we have reliable results when selecting and matching tubes for customers.


We're talking about more than 10,000 audio tubes that need to be individually tested, identified and organized. This has been a substantial undertaking, but it is also giving us a consistently tested inventory and making it much easier to accurately select and match tubes for customers going forward.


At the same time, I've been moving a very large inventory from Illinois to Minnesota and integrating it into the operation. Despite these challenges, we have processed and shipped hundreds of orders since I acquired AudioTubes.com, and we continue to make progress every week.


I don't want speed to come at the expense of quality. Many of the tubes we sell are expensive and increasingly difficult-to-find vintage tubes. When someone purchases a matched pair or a specially selected low-noise tube, I want to be confident that what leaves here has been properly tested and selected.


None of this is intended to excuse an order that has taken too long or an email that I've missed. There have been growing pains during a transition of this size, and there are areas where I know we need to improve. Ultimately, the responsibility for the business and taking care of our customers is mine.


If anyone reading this has an order or customer-service issue that they believe is still unresolved, please contact me directly by email with your name and order information. I want to know about it so I can personally look into it and get it resolved.


We sincerely appreciate everyone's patience while we work through this transition. My goal is to preserve what made AudioTubes.com a trusted source for vintage tubes while continuing to improve the operation going forward.


Thank you,

Jon Oas
AudioTubes.com
 
Mr Boochie said:
Jon,

What about the post about someone getting non-NOS, rebranded, weak-testing tubes? Is this true or not?

Thanks!
Click to expand...



Yes, I saw that post and have already contacted the customer directly about it.

Based on his description of both the condition of the tubes and the test results, it appears that the wrong group of 7591 tubes was selected and shipped to him. The tubes he received were not what I intended to send for his order, and the wide variation in the test results he reported is certainly not what I would consider a strong, reasonably close set.

I apologized to him for the oversight and am going back through the 7591 inventory to determine exactly what happened. I will either provide the proper replacement tubes or otherwise make the situation right for him.

I certainly understand why he was disappointed with what he received, particularly when he was expecting NOS tubes. I'm not going to make excuses for the mistake. It should not have happened, and I take responsibility for correcting it.

This is also exactly why we are going through the very time-consuming process of retesting and reorganizing the entire inventory on the Amplitrex AT1000 so that situations like this are prevented going forward.

Jon Oas
AudioTubes.com
Click to expand...
 
@jon185 could become a sponsor or vender here, that way he can promote his business here.

I recently went to an action that was a sponsor here as he has a banner that pops up, it was great some really nice collectable tube amps were up for sale from a collection. I bid on a number of amps and did end up winning some, so I was happy with that. I would have purchased a few more but the way the bidding went they all almost ended at the same time, so if I had put to win prices on all of the ones I wanted. I might have had a really large tab, plus the fact it was out of state and I had no way to know what their shipper would charge. If they had spaced the bidding out more I might have picked up a couple of the clean Marantz tube amps they had, but it ended up probably for the best as the shipper's service wasn't cheap. They have to go and pick up the equipment and take it to their UPS store. I would have been better off paying a driver with uShip, but since I got the amps for a good price it ended up well and I am happy.
 
Mr Boochie said:
There is one thing that is kinda worrisome. Many new products are based on surplus, originally non-audio tubes.
Click to expand...
that many is a very very small percentage of tube gear being made. the biggest example, the 6ak5, so popular for headphone amps, is currently made by shuguang (there are 2 or 3 near equivalents or equivalents.) if they can sell better ones theyll make better ones.
 
OBMG74 said:
I bought some NOS tubes from Antique Electronics Supply a couple of years ago.

Clearly they were used tubes, one had bent pins like it had been in and out of socket a few times. All tested good on my basic tube tester.

I called them up ( after the return date) and they said that if a tube tests good, it is considered NOS.

Huh?…
Click to expand...
unacceptable from a professinal.
 
Mr Boochie said:
I like the ANOS term. "Almost" New-Old-Stock." Almost a bullseye.

5d8398b0-01e3-41ba-a3e7-d7355a1326e1.jpg
Click to expand...
less confusing than ANUS. ANOS or tests as new is fine.
 
tubeactive said:
Telefunken tubes are superb !
@marks2l , If you don't mind us asking, which Telefunken tubes did you buy,
at what cost ?
What is the guarantee ?
Click to expand...
Maybe the original ones I wouldn't doubt that but the new ones I can speak well regarding them. The few new ones I purchased failed in less than ten minutes. The company replaced them with new ones, same thing only even less then 10 minutes.

The new Telefunkens are handle if my memory serves me correctly by Sweetwater, which I think caters to the live music industry. With each purchase they send all this fancy brochures. I gave up trying the tubes were 12xa7's.
 
Ken Boyd said:
Maybe the original ones I wouldn't doubt that but the new ones I can speak well regarding them. The few new ones I purchased failed in less than ten minutes. The company replaced them with new ones, same thing only even less then 10 minutes.

The new Telefunkens are handle if my memory serves me correctly by Sweetwater, which I think caters to the live music industry. With each purchase they send all this fancy brochures. I gave up trying the tubes were 12xa7's.
Click to expand...
the only telefunkens were made by telefunken in germany many decades ago. of those there are many.

some company who made clone microphones bought the name "telefunken elektrostatik" and started buying JJs and writing those two words on them.
 
Genuine Telefunken tubes have a diamond, with a number or numbers, inside the diamond, between the tube pins, "molded" into the bottom glass.
Without the diamond, they are counterfeits !
 
Mr Boochie said:
I think the confusion may stem from the final days of TFK production in Germany. It's been reported that, to fill tube-order shipments — of which they had run out of in their OEM inventory — they bought tubes from Ei, Tesla, Siemens, and other manufacturers, washed and relabeled them (yes, relabeled) with a Telefunken logo.

None of these were made by Telefunken, and none have diamond bottoms.

I saw a photo on the Net (around 2010). There are collectors who seek these. You can tell modern-made counterfeits by the chalky OEM TFK logo. Most modern counterfeits or relabeled jobs have a more permanent acrylic logo.

The internal structures are not TFK. So the "12AU7 vs 12AX7 getter ring" ID will not work.

"When the getter support is over the 1st pin, it's a TFK ECC83/12AX7,
When the getter support is over the 3rd pin, it's a TFK ECC82/12AU7.

The plate structures look identical."
Click to expand...
I have a few of these. Relabeled by Tele? No diamonds.

IMG_1382.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom