Chinese And Soviet Tubes

[Johnny Salam]

I've seen Chinese and Soviet - it's just no fun calling them Russian - tubes and they seem to be relatively inexpensive.

Does this mean they're cheap or no good in some way, or do they just cost less?

 

[markus]

I'm a total vintage tube freak - never bought a new set of tubes except for a pair of Valve Art 2A3's . . .

If you search, you'll see some 'new' tubes have quality control issues . . especially ones that are subjected to harsh environments (rectifier and high voltage circuit outputs) .. .

I like to think of it in a car analogy. . .

you can spend some money, and drive a honda, or a maybe even a new lincoln, OR . . . for some more $$ (or if you're lucky for no more money) you can be driving a vintage Corvette, Ferrari, or Jaguar :thmbsp:

I know what I choose . . .

 

[gearhound]

99% of the worlds tubes are now produced in China or Russia.
JJ tubes, in what was Yugoslavia, is the only exception.
The great majority of new production tubes are relatively low-cost and sound decent.
If you want a great sounding tube....be prepared to spend some money.
NOS (New Old Stock) from the 40's to the early 80's are very much in demand, and due to the ever dwindling supply, costly.

Steve

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

The current Russian tubes (Sovtek, Tung-Sol, Mullard, Svetlana) have proven themselves in reliability and sound quality. Can't say as much for the Chinese tubes, which in my experience sound good, but have fairly short lifespans.

 

[Mr. Lin]

The Russian tubes I've used seem to be a good value considering their low cost, but as far as sound goes I find them to be rather boring. Like markus said, if you want performance you're best bet is NOS, but you will pay big time.

 

[jaymanaa]

I've found lots of good Russian tubes, but never a Chinese that I would use in my, or anyone elses gear.

 

[kvflyer]

I don't use Chinese because they are supposed to be of inferior quality. Now that is hear-say because I don't have the facts.

I use the Soviet military equivalent of the 7189, the 6П14П -ЕВ. Reasonably priced and shipping from the Ukraine is not expensive. Great tube...

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

BTW: The 7189 is available over here as a Sovtek EL84M. Great sounding tube for audio, although I prefer the standard EL84 for guitar amps (more warmth and grungy when pushed).

 

[markus]

Like markus said, if you want performance you're best bet is NOS, but you will pay big time.

aaahhhh. . . . . . new old stock. . . . you will pay big time. . . . . I, however am a cheapskate

I like UOS. . .USED old stock. . .. . it's more hit & miss, but if you start hunting down complete consoles and other old tube equipment to fill my needs.

old navy Oscilloscope ? FREE . . . coughed up two SUPER strong brown base Sylvania 6SN7W's . .

box of unknown tubes at a Baptist thrift shop ? $20. . . . in the mix, two strong mullard EL37's, and a pair of strong EL34's (one RCA, but both mullards)

Ampex suitcase R2R - $20 - half dozen strong Bugle Boys and telefunken ECC83/12ax7's

aaaaaand . . . how bout a late 20's zenith radio with two 'got some life left' globe 45's ? $10 plus gas money .. . strong globe 80 to boot - oh and I parted it out and broke even :thmbsp:

granted, there have been many dogs along the way for 'buy the whole cow and see whatcha got', but thats half the fun :yes:

Ironically, at the last Kutztown meet, I traded a console tube amp and a Radiola 66 field coil speaker for a Heathkit AA100 which the prior owner had stuffed with all Sovtek 12ax7's, which I'm curious to hear

Point is, if you want instant gratification and 100% reliability, YES - go NOS . . . if you're willing to gamble a little, and have some patience, find a few old consoles or test equipment, and try your luck. . . many Zeniths and some magnavoxes had mullard tubes . . . my Packard Bell console ($40) came with a push/pull tube amp stuffed with a quad of STRONG matched amperex EL84's, and a pair of matched (STRONG) amperex 12ax7s . . .

NOTE TO SELF - CRAP - I'm GIVING MY SECRETS AWAY ! ! ! !

 

[jaymanaa]

Excellent post Markus.:thmbsp:

 

[bolly]

havin great luck with a quad of Chinese Penta KT66 wired in triode.... been runnin em about 10hrs per week, for near a year! :thmbsp:

 

[mhardy6647]

Jim McShane gave the OP an excellent synopsis of current production tubes (12AX7s) in a response to his other post.

 

[jaymanaa]

Jim McShane gave the OP an excellent synopsis of current production tubes (12AX7s) in a response to his other post.

My experience agrees with Jim's findings spot on.:yes:

 

[bricktop]

Don't forget Slovakian tubes -> JJ. Some good, some bad.

Good experiences: 6V6S, E34L, GZ34, and I hear EL84s are good, will try soon.

Bad experiences: ECC83s <- poop :thumbsdn:

 

[gadget73]

Getting way out of audio, but how are these cheapie import tubes as far as basic functionality and reliability? Some of my CB equipment makes use of 6L6 and 6BQ5 tubes for audio and RF stages. I don't really want to pay premium coin for top shelf audio tubes because it doesn't really matter in this application. As long as the emission is good and they're reliable, any old tube will do the job.

 

[Mr. Lin]

aaahhhh. . . . . . new old stock. . . . you will pay big time. . . . . I, however am a cheapskate

I like UOS. . .USED old stock. . .. . it's more hit & miss, but if you start hunting down complete consoles and other old tube equipment to fill my needs.

old navy Oscilloscope ? FREE . . . coughed up two SUPER strong brown base Sylvania 6SN7W's . .

box of unknown tubes at a Baptist thrift shop ? $20. . . . in the mix, two strong mullard EL37's, and a pair of strong EL34's (one RCA, but both mullards)

Ampex suitcase R2R - $20 - half dozen strong Bugle Boys and telefunken ECC83/12ax7's

aaaaaand . . . how bout a late 20's zenith radio with two 'got some life left' globe 45's ? $10 plus gas money .. . strong globe 80 to boot - oh and I parted it out and broke even :thmbsp:

granted, there have been many dogs along the way for 'buy the whole cow and see whatcha got', but thats half the fun :yes:

Ironically, at the last Kutztown meet, I traded a console tube amp and a Radiola 66 field coil speaker for a Heathkit AA100 which the prior owner had stuffed with all Sovtek 12ax7's, which I'm curious to hear

Point is, if you want instant gratification and 100% reliability, YES - go NOS . . . if you're willing to gamble a little, and have some patience, find a few old consoles or test equipment, and try your luck. . . many Zeniths and some magnavoxes had mullard tubes . . . my Packard Bell console ($40) came with a push/pull tube amp stuffed with a quad of STRONG matched amperex EL84's, and a pair of matched (STRONG) amperex 12ax7s . . .

NOTE TO SELF - CRAP - I'm GIVING MY SECRETS AWAY ! ! ! !

Very good point, something I completely forgot to mention.

 

[twystd]

Soviet vs Russian tubes. (long)

I like to make a distinction between Russian (current production) vs Soviet (mil spec production from the cold war era). I agree that current Russian production to be as Mr. Lin stated as "boring". However the old Soviet era stuff can be as good, if not better than, the best NOS western tubes.

Examples of this are, as kvflyer brought up, the 6P14P-EV (7189, EL84 sub) really sound great. The 6P3S-E (6L6GC/5881 sub) sounds amazing, and is available on ebay for about $6.00 each. Make sure you get the "E" version with the coin base, not the other non "E" version with the full black base, they aren't nearly as good. The 6N23P-EV is a 6922 sub, and the 6N1P-EV is a near equivalent to the 6DJ8 (more heater current, slightly different optimum operating points), truly nice sounding tube. The 6P6S is a really good sounding 6V6 sub.

Other tubes of interest to the DIYer are: 6N6P-EV, a near 5687 type, with a slightly different pin out (I know folks who like these better than any 5687). The 6S19P-EV single triode, a tube with a mu ~ 3, RP of 300 ohms, 10 watts dissipation....Hmmm spud amp, possibly cap output preamp/buffer? The 6S3P-EV is a single triode that has a mu~ 50 with an RP ~ 2k ohms, really only useful in a phono stage as bias and B+ are low, supposedly sound very good. The 6S45P-EV is the Soviet era mil spec version of the 6H30P, but costs $10.00 instead of $30.00. The GU-50, a pentode that uses a special tube socket, and is like a great sounding 6550 on steroids. The GM-70, large transmitting triode, with thoriated tungsten filament, sort of like an 845 but easier to drive. The 5U3C (black plate old Svetlana logo) rectifier is a really great sounding 5U4GB sub.

The earlier tubes (mid 60s or earlier) were designed for analog circuits, and some tubes like the 6N1P-E benefit from this. However, these are almost unobtainium. Try and buy tubes that are EV versions, as these are mil spec and made to better standards, and go through military inspections. Since the early tubes (60s-50s) tubes are mostly off the market now, there are still some 70s production tubes available, and these seem to be for the most part excellent. I try and avoid the tubes made just before the fall of the old Soviet Block, as some tubes I've bought from this era seem spotty.

Since I largely scratch build now, I'm in the process of liquidating my stash of NOS tubes. Since the Soviet mil spec tubes do everything I want, I have very little experience with the Chinese tubes, but so far not impressed.

twystd

 

[gearhound]

I've seen (and bought) NOS Russian Reflector EL-84 tubes from the 70's......$10 each.
They might not rival NOS GE or RCA.....but I don't have to sell my car to buy a quad set either!?

Steve

 

[Valsimot]

99% of the worlds tubes are now produced in China or Russia.
JJ tubes, in what was Yugoslavia, is the only exception.
The great majority of new production tubes are relatively low-cost and sound decent.
If you want a great sounding tube....be prepared to spend some money.
NOS (New Old Stock) from the 40's to the early 80's are very much in demand, and due to the ever dwindling supply, costly.

Steve

JJ tubes are from Slovakia, Ei were from Yugoslavia.

 

[roadie1]

FWIW and I doubt that it helps much but I've had good experience with small signal Chinese tubes. The 12AU7 to be exact.

I bought a fairly nice integrated tube amp some years ago and liked the sound but the only problem was that it was noisy at idle. Lots of hiss coming thru the speakers.

I tried 3 or 4 better known tubes in the center preamp socket to no avail so I stuck in a Chinese tube and it quieted things down nicely. I'm not experienced enough or tech savvy enough to tell you why this happened but in my application the Chinese tube worked well.

Also when I bought my Dared tube pre it came with Chinese tubes. A little bright but not all that bad sounding IMHO.

Although, as a previous poster pointed out, the ones I've used do have a short life span. Especially in the application with the integrated tube amp. Though quiet at first, it's only a matter of months before it gets noisy like all of the others.

And now that I'm thinking about the Dared, it came with a Chinese rectifier tube, again kind of bright. As far as this tube goes much better can be found for little money.

My 1-1/2 cents.................R1:yes: