Hey Forum
Need a little help here.
Got this 6SL7wgt SYLVANIA tube - but right out of the box I noticed the cloudy, white top.
The tube works - slightly noisy, but I only dared to run it for 10 minutes.
What is your opinion - is this a sign of leak?
Would you dare to use it?
initial thoughts and impressions?
leakā¦ count as bad DOA
Thanks Justin
I feared that was the case.
So, I just came across an article discussing how the current āsituationā in Ukraine is going to affect the tube market, that is, how itās going to affect Electro Harmonix (EHX) and its brands: Tung-Sol , Electro-Harmonix , EH Gold , Genalex Gold Lion , Mullard , Svetlana, Sovtek
What do you guys think?
Note: I do not want to spread any fake panic, Iām genuinely just trying to spread this news and hear what everybody thinks about the situation and the future of tubes
Itāll probably push tube prices up, at least new manufactured stuff. The Chinese manufacturers are still manufacturing AFAIK.
It might have a bigger effect on the availability of the NOS Russian tubes that have become popular on input stages like the 6C45Pi or 6N1P. Though the effect there is more likely disruption in shipping.
It is what it is.
We will see.
If the prices are going up, I think it will be by a great amount.
The big concern is the fact that exporting tubes of the seven Electro Harmonix brands is banned until the end of the year. That means that we will not see any Electro Harmonix exported from Russia until the end of 2022. Pretty big stuff if you ask meā¦
Iām sure there are easy ways around this 
Do you think that manufacturers will switch to Chinese-made tubes?
People could buy weapons and bullets made in the former Soviet Union they can source russian glass tubes. Likely there will be a middleman involved somewhere in SE Asia. Will likely take time for them to pop up. Hell ebay still might sell them.
Actually sounds like a possibility.
However, if you have a middleman in Asia, Iām pretty sure the prices are not going to look pretty.
If prices donāt look pretty enough, some manufacturers might look for tube manufacturers elsewhere.
I have moved some messages here from the closed thread.
Please donāt stray from the topic of tubes and into political related debate, as we avoid the discussion of politics on the forum.
Thanks.
Fun video. I enjoyed listening to this mans tube wisdom and a few of his stories related to tube BS.
Yes, this is words of sanity and practicality. He calls out Paul McGowan of PS Audio. McGowan has videos telling people to replace their tubes on aā¦profitable for vendorsā¦timeline.
McGowan responds here: https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/changing-of-the-guard/
Thanks for the link. That response had some entertaining posts in the comment section regarding amount of time when tubes begin the process to audibly deteriorate. Fresh sound from fresh tubes? Someone stating that just unplugging and plugging back in everything gave them a fresh sound. I wonder if that listener is experiencing issues with oxidation of metal somewhere and the physical movement of unplugging metal points of contact is removing oxidation.
I saw this in Audiogon Featured, in case anybody is in the market for 750 watt tube monobloc amplifiers that take 16 matched tubes each. Oh, and cost as much as a car, but theyāre on sale at a good price.
Those are kind of terrifying, actually.
Without even going into the cost, the size, heat and power requirements of those is stupendous! 800W at idle, 2100W at rated output, and 2400W max. You would need a dedicated 20A circuit for each one? I have no idea.
They are scary looking, and look like they should be in a nuclear powered Navy ship of some kind.
Best used North of the Arctic Circle.
There should be a Westinghouse kilowatt meter on the front panel of each them just like in switchgear. 
