Old 845 tubes, please help me decide are they woth to buy (photos)?
Register to hide this ad
Not enough info to know. Being old doesn't mean they have a short time left, and 845 tubes are good for more hours than the average output tube. As far as old tube life I am not sure anyone can know how long one will last, even if a tube is NOS a tube can fail for a number of reasons. I have seen brand new tubes fail in ten minutes. Price is a factor as well, a low price would give me a better reason to buy an old tube, and some old tubes are worth more than new ones. So really it all depends on a number of factors.
My quote...
"The lower the signal level the more individual components affect the signal"
Is my Quote..." ~~ ".
I do not pay a high price for output tubes as they do not affect the sound the way preamp tubes or speakers do...
845, 211, 811 are all "Directly Heated" power output vacuum tubes and are Wonderful sounding.
A picture of a tube against a White piece of paper can show deposited metals on the glass envelope (Brown haze).
That can easily show running hours.
Hope that helps..
"The lower the signal level the more individual components affect the signal"
Is my Quote..." ~~ ".
I do not pay a high price for output tubes as they do not affect the sound the way preamp tubes or speakers do...
845, 211, 811 are all "Directly Heated" power output vacuum tubes and are Wonderful sounding.
A picture of a tube against a White piece of paper can show deposited metals on the glass envelope (Brown haze).
That can easily show running hours.
Hope that helps..
Last edited:
Lavane
Lunatic Member
It the getter is fading that would be a red flag for me. I dought I would buy any tube with a fading getter. That being said, I had a 6BQ5 power tube that the getter had turned brown. The tube was slowly loosing vacume. It came in an old console amp I bought. That tube lasted for several years before it lost vacume completely. One day I noticed the getter had turned white. Luckily I noticed it before turning the amp on.
There are actually many fine 845 tubes available now for much less, or at least as much, as you'll pay for NOS. This is case where, having used 845s for a considerable period, I'd just rather go with a well-made modern version. Same with EL34s and KT66s. I suppose the orginal Mullards and GECs are "magic" but honestly, I just want a good-sounding, well-performing fresh tube that will last me for a few years, and there are plenty of those.
Hi Guys, thank you for your responces.
@Buck Rogers
If I read you right, you say it’s not worthly to invest a lot of money into 845?
Does it mean I won’t hear much difference?
Because you know, I’ve read all that things about RCA magic (or United Electronics, even Cetron) I thought it would vastly transform my experience..
I have some pictures against white surface, but there are some problems in attaching them. Will try again.
@Lavane
Sorry for ignorance but what would haappened if you’d turn up the amp with getter turned white? Boom?
@zackthedog
Would you reccomend a good quality modern tube?
Best wishes
@Buck Rogers
If I read you right, you say it’s not worthly to invest a lot of money into 845?
Does it mean I won’t hear much difference?
Because you know, I’ve read all that things about RCA magic (or United Electronics, even Cetron) I thought it would vastly transform my experience..
I have some pictures against white surface, but there are some problems in attaching them. Will try again.
@Lavane
Sorry for ignorance but what would haappened if you’d turn up the amp with getter turned white? Boom?
@zackthedog
Would you reccomend a good quality modern tube?
Best wishes
I will leave you a link to the auction site (because I don’t know how to attach photos atm..)
It’s a proxy service for japaneese yahoo auctions, biggest e-auction site in Japan. It’s safe
If you scrool down into item description, there are a lot of photographs of actual tube
It’s a proxy service for japaneese yahoo auctions, biggest e-auction site in Japan. It’s safe
If you scrool down into item description, there are a lot of photographs of actual tube
I see, thank you. Could you and @Buck Rogers look at the link to the auction, please?
I kinda won it, and thinking -is it only to put on a shelf or should it actually be used for sonic pleasure?
Worried, but on the other hand, to late for that.
I kinda won it, and thinking -is it only to put on a shelf or should it actually be used for sonic pleasure?
Worried, but on the other hand, to late for that.
From what I recall the 845 tubes don't usually have a bright silver getter like most other output tubes. I own a pair of amps that use those tubes, but they are currently out of my rotation, so they are in my storage. I didn't pay that much for my pair of tubes, and I wouldn't pay that much for them to sit on a shelve. There are some good Chinese tubes of this make that sound great IMO and I own both, old NOS, and current Chinese production.
They are a bit though to find a tester that can test them, but I think there might be a few members who can test them for you, open a thread after you get them, you can send them to a member and they could test them for you prior to using them. My testers won't test transmitter tubes so I can't help you on this matter.
Those tubes do last longer than the average output tubes, so just being old doesn't have a bearing on if they are good or not. You need a tester to measure them.
They are a bit though to find a tester that can test them, but I think there might be a few members who can test them for you, open a thread after you get them, you can send them to a member and they could test them for you prior to using them. My testers won't test transmitter tubes so I can't help you on this matter.
Those tubes do last longer than the average output tubes, so just being old doesn't have a bearing on if they are good or not. You need a tester to measure them.
Last edited:
The few that I have seen have a small getter flash on the side or at the bottom. So sometimes it's hidden by other tube structures.
These flashes often "disappear" with use. NOS Tung-Sol (USA) 6550s are kinda noted for this. They still test well and sound good.
buying anything from china is a roll of the dice. ive been waiting two weeks just for a small item to go through customs on there end not America's end. WTH
That getter doesn't look obviously bad to me. On the other hand, the tube might have some hours on it. The image isn't super high res, but it looks to me like the base has been scratched somewhat from insertion and removal from a bayonet socket (look at the scratch in the "A"). I use this to spot big transmitting tubes that aren't truly NIB (another good tell is scratches on the pins). Of course, there's no strict relationship between remaining life and insertion; a tube can be socketed once and run for thousands of hours, or socketed 100 times for testing and barely run at all. But truly NIB tubes shouldn't show signs of handling
Thank you guys for your input to this topic. I have a guy, not far from where I live, who measures tubes for change. I will take all tubes I have including recently bought RCA 845 so I will know how much life is in them.
Btw, How to safely transport tubes if I don’t have the ofiginal boxes?
@Buck Rogers you said it’s not worth to spend a lot on output tubes, and that you can evaluate their use against white surface, could you take a look at the link and tell me what you think?
Btw, How to safely transport tubes if I don’t have the ofiginal boxes?
@Buck Rogers you said it’s not worth to spend a lot on output tubes, and that you can evaluate their use against white surface, could you take a look at the link and tell me what you think?
you turn it on an listen and about 15 minutes all of a sudden your starting to hear things you never heard in that same recording. its when all the transformers are warmed up and things just come out so easy.
Bubble wrap and a box. That is the way some people ship them to me. They sell new tube boxes as well, I have ordered many and all different sizes, that way when I receive tubes in nasty old boxes or no boxes at all I test them and label the boxes on the outside. But I do admit the sellers of the new boxes are proud of them they are not cheap.
I think it best to let an amp warm up just a bit, and some amps I own they say not to turn them off if your going to use them often, they have a switch to turn off the heaters but it keeps everything else energized. But that is only on specific amps that have a standby mode.
