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RE: Anyone buy tubes from NOS Tube Store in Turkey?

Posted by Mercury Boy on August 24, 2010 at 08:12:32

In Reply to: Anyone buy tubes from NOS Tube Store in Turkey? posted by becketma@yahoo.com on June 18, 2010 at 23:57:21:

Hi,

I recently purchased from them. Unfortunately though, I found that the pair of tubes I bought were extremely microphonic. I did not check for this when I actually first installed them because I assumed they would be OK in that respect (the measured microphonics were quoted as low on the boxes). Apart from that, when you have a headphone amp in a dead quiet room with double glazed windows, microphonics aren't something that was high up on my priority list. Apart from that, all the tubes I have ever bought from dealers have never exhibited microphonic behaviour anywhere remotely as bad as these tubes and in my naivety I honestly did not think a good quality NOS tube could ever be so bad (even the very cheap $5 Chinese tubes my amp came from were far less microphonic, but even they are pretty bad when you do a "tap" test).

Of course, the above could suggest the tubes became microphonic and were fine when dispatched. I prefer to think this is the case, though I wish I had tested them for this when I first installed them (I will of course with all future purchases).

Anyway, I did not really like the tubes (tough luck on my part - nothing I can do about that) but the sound got a lot worse the longer they were left on as well (which contradicated all my past experience, where the tubes would sound optimal after about 15 minutes and then produce consistent sonics indefinitely whilst the amplifier was on). But these progressively got worse (treble became grainier and more glary the longer they were on - even continuing to get worse after some hours and even after being on overnight) until I turned the amp off and waited till everything had cooled down again. They they would sound OK again - but still get progressively worse during each listening session. Each and every time, 15 minutes was all I could stand before the sound became too glary. Again, these problems did not occur with the Tungsrams or even cheaper tubes like the JAN Sylvania 6DJ8.

At present I don't have a resolution to the situation as I am awaiting an email response from the company. I am back using the Tungsrams which are fine and have no audible microphonics that I can detect. I realise there is nothing I can do about buying a tube and just not liking the sound, but I can't resell the tubes in their current state so I would like some sort of solution - even if it means getting another pair the same and simply selling those. Of course, maybe these tubes are actually faulty and I am not hearing the sound tubes of that type (dimple Mullard E88CC circa early 70s) are supposed to produce.

I hope it can be resolved one way or another but I have a slight fear that if I got replacement tubes they might have the same problem :(

That said, up to this point the level of customer service really has been excellent and they have answered quite detailed emails with similarly detailed emails and the responses have been within 24 hours.

I guess what happens with my situation will say a lot about whether I feel I can do business with them in the future. They certainly have a number of tubes that are difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere and from what I can tell the prices are extremely reasonable. It's just frustrating that they are not geared up like Tubemonger who has everything listed with excellent photographs and their own proprietary descriptions (some may have noticed that some of the tube descriptions at the Nos Tube Store website match almost word for word the decriptions on Brent Jessee's website. The coincidence is all too much and I just wonder who copied who...

Anyway, I will update this thread if anyone is interested if and when any further progress is made.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Schiit Audio

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