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Where to buy tubes, recommendation needed.

I

itsikhefez

Active Member
Hey all,

I recently built a Bottlehead Mainline Headphone and wanted to buy some tubes to have on reserve.
The Mainline has 2 * 6c45pi and 1 * 12AU7.
I don't think there a much options for the 6c45pi and found some OS Reflektor which is the same as was supplied with the kit.

For the 12AU7, looking for a recommendation for a place to buy. I found a bunch of sites that sell but recall reading in the past about these great small stores that don't even have an online cart and sell after an email exchange. I've found a bunch of these as well but I don't which ones are good/trustworthy in terms of quality and accuracy of the condition of the tube.

The 12AU7 is in the power supply and tube rolling there is said to have a subtle influence if at all.
Nonetheless, I'd like a good tube here, so any recommendations on that are welcome as well.
 
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Maybe I'm wrong but I'd be surprised if the 12AU7 is in the PS.
Whether it influences sound much , I have no idea.
+1 for J M:thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check J M out.
@nj pheonix I'm far from an expert.. this is the info from Bottlehead website:
"It uses 6C45pis as the power tubes and a 12AU7 as the two channel hybrid shunt voltage regulator, which is fed by a CRCRC power supply using Cree high voltage Schottky rectifiers"
 
12AU7s are common and inexpensive; many here, myself included, have dozens.
I'd check out Bartertown or even eBay for established sellers and take it from there.
 
Last edited:
Subscribe and check barter town. In the past i have put together rolling assortments of 20 or so 12AU7s for people looking to roll them. 12AU7S are cheap and plentiful and came in half a million varieties. I like American made raytheons. Also you cant go wrong buying from Jim McShane, though he works with primarily brand new stuff, new production will limit you to about 3 choices.
 
itsikhefez said:
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check J M out.
@nj pheonix I'm far from an expert.. this is the info from Bottlehead website:
"It uses 6C45pis as the power tubes and a 12AU7 as the two channel hybrid shunt voltage regulator, which is fed by a CRCRC power supply using Cree high voltage Schottky rectifiers"
Click to expand...

I stand corrected.
It's an unusual use of that tube.
If that's the case , even less likely to alter sound.:thumbsup:
 
itsikhefez said:
Hey all,

I recently built a Bottlehead Mainline Headphone and wanted to buy some tubes to have on reserve.
The Mainline has 2 * 6c45pi and 1 * 12AU7.
I don't think there a much options for the 6c45pi and found some OS Reflektor which is the same as was supplied with the kit.

For the 12AU7, looking for a recommendation for a place to buy. I found a bunch of sites that sell but recall reading in the past about these great small stores that don't even have an online cart and sell after an email exchange. I've found a bunch of these as well but I don't which ones are good/trustworthy in terms of quality and accuracy of the condition of the tube.

The 12AU7 is in the power supply and tube rolling there is said to have a subtle influence if at all.
Nonetheless, I'd like a good tube here, so any recommendations on that are welcome as well.
Click to expand...
Where to buy tubes depends on where you are !
Adding location in your profile would save unnecessary questions.
 
This is why it's a good idea to have a capacitor tester that can test the caps at their rated voltage. You can test them in circuit for leakage without powering it up and risking damage to the power transformer.
 
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