Western Electric Tubes

[Andyman]

Originally posted by litefoot22
Thousands. After a few hundred tested ,you just replaced them all ,saved a lot of time. And the used ones went into the dumpster..George

So were was the landfill?

That may be quite a buried treasure.

 

[jt1stcav]

quote:
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Originally posted by litefoot22
Thousands. After a few hundred tested ,you just replaced them all ,saved a lot of time. And the used ones went into the dumpster..George
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If only you knew then what you know now, imagine all the money to be made on eBay selling used Western Electric 300Bs...daunting, isn't it?

 

[litefoot22]

For Western tube fans some 396A on ebay..Item number: 3080481240

 

[Rob]

If my memory serves me correctly the 396A is the preferred 'roll-in' for those gorgeous Shanling tubed CD players and also the SACD version. Man I'd love to have a Shanling SACD player.

 

[Marknewbie]

I worked for Western Electric as well. Did not spend 34 years there but my Father did retire from AT&T. He spent most of his carreer with WE and in the end was at Gateway II in Newark. Dad recently passed away and left me all of his audio gear and tubes. The whole lot is at his home in FL and I eventually will have to fly down and rent a U-Haul to drive it all back. George, You might have ran across me or my Father in your carreer there. I worked at the Indianapolis mfg plant for 7 years. Were you ever there?

Oh, and I just replaced the WE 396a's in my Shanling T200 with Bendix 6385 Red Banks. Certainly an improvement where I thought none could be made!

 

[soundmotor]

So western went back to bell labs to design a new tube. What they came up with was a 300B on steroids. A tube with the same quality of the 300B but a lot more drive. The 350B tube….George

It would be a tough sell to many to equate a triode to a tetrode & vice versa.