McMack
New Member
Which era of GL 300B do you recommend?
JJ or Gold Lion 300B recommendation
- Thread starter itsikhefez
- Start date
“northern electric” is a rebrand name that the tube store writes on some of the tubes they buy and sell. many of the tubes ive seen rebranded NE are leftover tj full music—eg the box plate 12AX7. im not sure what other tubes theyre writing that name on, but i hear tj full music were dependable
and sounded good.
Hi everyone. Im new to this forum and thought Id give my 2 cents about Northern Electric branded tubes and others, from the Tube Store.
I have a little Shuguang 300b set amp that Ive had for 14yrs driving altec 19’s. Tubes still going after all these yrs (stock OEM Shuguang tubes).
I decided maybe time to replace the rectifiers and the 12ax7’s so ordered two new manufactured (russian) Mullard branded gz34’s and two Northern Electric branded 12ax7 “premium selected” and matched tubes from the Tube Store.
I heard improvements in sound after rectifier tubes were installed and further improvements when Northern Electric tubes were installed. Tighter bass and more open and extended highs so initially very happy.
However after less than 200 hrs the “Mullards” went bad spectacularly and took out the fuse in my amp. After replacing with NOS real Mullards ($) all good until shortly after one of the Northern Electric 12ax7’s went microphonic and then started making crackling static noises through the speakers. Reinstalled the OEM 12ax7 tubes and have had no further issues.
Contacted Tube Store about the early failures as both sets of tubes had less than 200 hrs on them but seller would not warranty them as I was over their 90 day warranty period. I wont be doing any more business with them and would not recomend Northern Electric tubes or the new manufactured so called “Mullard” gz34 rec tubes either. Ive since heard similar stories.
Disappointed with Tube Store customer service. I had been a regular customer and would have thought they would make an exception for me with warranty as tubes hardly had any use, thus keeping me as a customer. Instead theyve lost one.
Yes the NOS tubes were expensive at double the price of new manufactured ones but they will return the investment in (likely) long life. Cheap tubes arent cheap if you replace them once or twice a yr and possibly damage your equipment when they fail.
Only NOS for me going forwards!
man, that sucks. bad customer service, bad tubes. double whammy. what a pain.
glad you had a fuse.
im real curious what 12AX7 theyre selling as "northern electric."
can you please post several photos of the "northern electric" 12AX7?
And it gets worse! Today I received a matched set of TJ Full Music 12ax7’s and paid 250$CND. These tubes came with a test sheet and were among the last pairs of these left in the importer’s inventory. They were manufactured ten yrs ago I believe. They were tested by the Canadian importer of that brand to ensure quality.
So I excitedly drove the half hour to my post office (I live rurally in the mountains) to pick them up and give them a listen. Installed them and let the amp warm up for 15mins. Started getting ready to play some music but before I could there was a loud series of pops from my speaker. I lunged across the room to shut off the amp but not before several more loud pops.
I reinstalled my backup 12ax7’s and listened to music for a couple hrs with no problems. I dont know which of the new TJ’s was bad or maybe both but Im not about to risk my amp and speakers to find out!
I know its not my amps fault as I had the amp gone through by a qualified tech familiar with the model of my amp and all was good except for a blown fuse from those new manufactured russian “Mullard” rectifiers that went bad that Ive previously mentioned in my last post.
Ive requested a refund and will stick with NOS tubes which have never failed on me. Since Ive spent now 750$ on new tubes and still dont have a working set, I might as well have spent that on a nice set of NOS real Mullards.
But gee whiz and WTF? I didnt realized how bad the reliability and quality of newer tubes had gotten this bad. So bad that maybe these products shouldnt be sold in the first place. Not one of my tubes that came as OEM in my amp has failed and now going on 14yrs! Just thought it was probably time to retube due to age and didnt want to wait until an old tube failed and might damage the amp. Jokes on me I guess.
Here is a photo of the TJ’s and one of the test sheet as well as one of the Northern Electric 12ax7’s from Tube Store
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Thanks Jon. Whats a guy to do? I find this totally unacceptable. I mean Im just an average hard working guy who would like to enjoy his stereo. Im of modest means and cant be shelling out 1000$ fir tubes every few mnths, or dead out of box yet.
Wait a minute!… I just noticed something at this moment due to posting those photos. The Northern Electric 12ax7 and the TJ Full Music 12ax7 are identical in every way except that the TJ has gold pins. Otherwise IDENTICAL! Check the two out side by side in photos.
Now I feel duped and taken as well
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yup! thats why i wanted to see em. that tj 12AX7 box plate... some have gold pins, some dont, and $250 CAD for a pair of those is obscene.
all the 12AX7, 12AU7, 6SN7 andn 6SL7 "northern electric" ive seen have been leftover tj full music. sophia electric was sellin em , too. i inquired about this a coupla times, and the tube store did not answer.
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I dont even know what to say! I mean I wouldnt care who made them or where, I just want them to sound good and be reliable.
I feel like Ive been mislead and ripped off.
Pretty sure Ill get refunded on the TJ’s as Rachael at Grant Fidelity/premium Vac tubes has given me excellent customer service in the past and I own many of her products over the yrs.
But still WTF!
My PP 300B amps push the tubes fairly hard. But nowhere near max spec.
Gold Lions went off like fuses. Big flash, poof.
Viva tubes said too bad, past 90 days. There were very few hours on them. Subbed in various spares and eventually all but one died.
Ditto for EH
Now I have JJ and they have been fine.
Gold Lions went off like fuses. Big flash, poof.
Viva tubes said too bad, past 90 days. There were very few hours on them. Subbed in various spares and eventually all but one died.
Ditto for EH
Now I have JJ and they have been fine.
This level of reliability is outrageous and would not be tolerated in most industries. The companies/ resellers must be responsible for the products they sell. If the quality is this bad across the board then the product shouldnt be sold. It seems like many sellers are just dumping inferior products that they buy at lowest possible prices from overseas manufacturers then make big claims about how their supply is best of the best. They boast about how they reject many from manufacturers and do all their own testing and matching. Then as the customer you find out that the tubes fail after low hrs (but past the warranty). No wonder the sellers have such short warranties as they already know their products will fail after a couple hundred or fewer hrs and dont want to give you the time to find out. For a 90 day warranty you would need to listen for two hrs every day for three mnths to log aprox 200hrs. Some output tubes aren't even broken in at 200hrs (others just broken!). A 30 day warranty pretty much usless. The whole industry smells bad. Like I said earlier only NOS tubes for me from now on. Buy once and then good for a long time.
As Ive previously said, Im just a man of modest means trying to keep my hifi going. Listening to music at home is one of the biggest passions in my life. I dont own a motorcycle, snowmobile or motorboat. I dont own an RV or an airplane or a sports car. I dont own a cottage or second car or fancy golf clubs or fly rods. I drive an old Subaru all so I can have high quality music reproduced in my home on two systems Ive spent yrs assembling. I dont mind the thought of 2000 or so to retube every few yrs but not 2000 every 6mnths!
Honestly at the rate of tube failure Im experiencing and reading about, I dont understand how there is even an industry left for tube gear.
Sad days.
for real, man. in a world where the minium customer service is a baseline, we wouldnt have these stories, but they are becoming more and more common.
that is definitely happening. imagine the markup on those tj full music tubes.
as has been documented on AK a good bit, these tubes often do not test as advertised. psvane sends out fake test results with their tubes, knows it, still wont address, admit or correct it.
the more limited one's time and money, the more expensive others' incompetence and/or corruption. holy smoke.
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Thankfully I have not had the same issues as others here. I have yet to have a Gold Lion 12xa7 fail in any of my amps. As far as 300b tubes I have a number of sets that I purchased new, So Gold Lions, and some LinLai 300b -T the blue glass with gold bases, and I have yet to use the Gold Lions, but the LinLai's have been in there for about a year with hundreds of hours use and not a glitch. Still sound great, but I suppose I need to order an adaptor for my tester to check them out after a while. But they are still holding about the same on the bias meter, so I figured until I have to start readjusting the plate voltage they are fine.
Thanks for those responses. Good to onow about those Lin Lai 300b,s as those are the ones Im thinking about trying when my Shuguangs finally show signs of weakening (they have about 1500 hrs(?) on them and were the stock tubes that came with the amp.
I heard back from Rachael at Grant Fidelity/PremiumVacTubes regarding those TJ12ax7 tubes and she stands behind her testing before they were shipped to me, but wS sorry to hear about the issues and has started the process for me to get a full refund minus shipping of course. Kudos to Rachael for that, and its in line with the good customer service Ive received from her going back now over 14yrs.
I will likely purchase those Lin Lai 300bs from her when the time comes (unless I win the lottery and get some Western Electric 300’s!)
I heard back from Rachael at Grant Fidelity/PremiumVacTubes regarding those TJ12ax7 tubes and she stands behind her testing before they were shipped to me, but wS sorry to hear about the issues and has started the process for me to get a full refund minus shipping of course. Kudos to Rachael for that, and its in line with the good customer service Ive received from her going back now over 14yrs.
I will likely purchase those Lin Lai 300bs from her when the time comes (unless I win the lottery and get some Western Electric 300’s!)
crytone sells them.
they buy shuguang and jj (matbe others) tubes, cryo treat them, rebrand them, then sell em under the name "cryotone."
I designed and built my PP 300B amps in 2003. Cathode bias, interstage coupled etc.
Started with Svetlana 300B. At the time, they were regarded as excellent sounding tubes. About $80 each.
But they all had filament issues. It was well known after enough got out in the field. In a dark room, you could literally watch the filament move back and forth as it heated. Eventually touching the grid and poof! You get half a filament. I literally went through 12 of them. I have 2 left.
Then tried the EH. I have 1 left.
Then Gold Lion, 8 of them. I have 2 left.
Over the years, I made mods to delay the B+, as well as finally added a switch for the filaments so I can turn them on first. They have their own separate supply transformer.
The JJ are tougher. A good buddy owns Eurotubes and is my supplier. $700 for a quad now. And silly me for building PP amps and needing 4!
And of course, the esoteric 300B folks don't like the way these sound. I think they are fine. I'm 70, I'm old.......
Should I see failures with these I'll convert the amps to 6550/KT88 in triode mode and be happy. I have vintage versions that all test great.
Started with Svetlana 300B. At the time, they were regarded as excellent sounding tubes. About $80 each.
But they all had filament issues. It was well known after enough got out in the field. In a dark room, you could literally watch the filament move back and forth as it heated. Eventually touching the grid and poof! You get half a filament. I literally went through 12 of them. I have 2 left.
Then tried the EH. I have 1 left.
Then Gold Lion, 8 of them. I have 2 left.
Over the years, I made mods to delay the B+, as well as finally added a switch for the filaments so I can turn them on first. They have their own separate supply transformer.
The JJ are tougher. A good buddy owns Eurotubes and is my supplier. $700 for a quad now. And silly me for building PP amps and needing 4!
And of course, the esoteric 300B folks don't like the way these sound. I think they are fine. I'm 70, I'm old.......
Should I see failures with these I'll convert the amps to 6550/KT88 in triode mode and be happy. I have vintage versions that all test great.
Destructor
Super Member
Old post from 2019, I'm still using the same JJ 300B's I installed around 2018. I don't use the amp full time but it's in rotation for a couple months to maybe up to 6 months each year. My first set lasted over 10 years and it was used as my main amp for maybe 5 years.