Good stuff Bro! Those are some great tubes, and smoke some of the lesser quality NOS tubes, no doubt.
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By far these are my favorite looking tubes I’ve gotten so far! I love the stamp on the glass and the boxes look awesome too.
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Now you can listen to Italian Opera and your amp will translate real time into English.
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Those are some good looking tubes, and those Italian stamps always look cool.
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Scored another very early, rare and famous tube, that I have been wanting to hear for a long time!
The Philips Copenhagen ECC81 D Getter 54’ with bottom date code (earliest version of crimped plate). This tube is considered one of the top NOS tubes in the ECC81 family, and I am happy to add it to my collection. I can’t wait to hear this one in the Pendant SE.
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Just had some more tubes delivered. 
I am working on building up my Tungsram collection with some first editions. Tungsram is a brand that often flies under the radar, however these earliest versions with welded plates and foil Getters, rival any of the famous NOS brands like Valvo and Philips.
I scored a pair of ECC82 for my RH-5 and a single ECC83 for my Pendant SE.
This is a pair of ECC82, with one being a rebrand, however the construction and date is the same.
Check out this awesome packaging job!
A close up of those welded plates, and this is a tell tale sign that the tube is of earliest construction, as latter tubes used crimped plates.
Gonna be fun weekend!
Happy Rolling and Listening!
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Currently on a Brimar 6J5 kick. I picked up a pair of 6J5G and loved the sound so much I couldn’t resist picking up a pair of their little siblings, the 6J5GT in NOS original packaging. There’s a certain kind of magic in the unboxing experience with NOS tubes that haven’t seen the light of day for over 80 years…
Unfortunately one of the bases had come undone after all of those years of storage. The adhesive material for the base was shattered into bits with the metal band completely detached. I messaged the seller and thankfully they happened to have one more identical tube they sent out as a replacement free of charge. Being impatient, I decided to attempt a repair using Devcon 5-min epoxy to seal it back up. I managed to not completely botch the repair-job and the base sealed up nice and tight, however the epoxy was quite messy. Trying to act quickly, I reached for some sandpaper to clean it up. Bad idea! Note to anyone attempting similar repair: 99% iso alcohol on paper towel works much better at cleaning up the epoxy mess than sandpaper, which will scratch the metal bands terribly! After a half hour or so, I fired up the pair in the BHC and they are started up fine and are both working perfectly.
~20 hours into burning these in and they are blooming quite nicely. They sound terrific with my VC in the BHC using a Bendix 6080WB power tube. These tubes are great at resolving details and have a nice airy decay, but the most noticeable characteristic is how strong of a dynamic punch these have, especially when paired with the Bendix.
Here is the 6J5G for comparison:
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Tung Sol VT-231 6SN7GT round plates - April 1945… running it now in the Mogwai SE. Noise is gone on High Z but so is some of the bass and euphonics. Gotta burn it in and report back!
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My favorite 6SN7 by far. Nice tube!
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I’ve been trying to find an NOS matched pair forever 
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Got some more tubes for my Pendant SE. 
One of my all time favorites and quite rare, a Valvo Hamburg ECC82 Long Plate Square Getter 56’.
Also picked up a couple rectifiers. Can’t go wrong with Mullard, and here is an EZ81 Square Getter from Blackburn.
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Just got some NOS Tung Sol solid grey plate (no holes) 6550 power tubes, to go with my “3 hole” grey plate 6550’s. The solid plates are rumored to be a little better, but the price I paid was about the same as the 3 hole tubes so even if I can’t tell the difference, I wanted to have an extra set of the 6550’s as backups anyway.
Thanks to @Earmuffs, who I have to say packages his tubes better than anyone else I’ve bought tubes from.
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I have never met a Tung Sol tube, that I did not like, and those are some good looking tubes right there!
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Got a super rare one delivered today.
This tube is a Tungsram ECC82 Welded Black Plate, with dish getter, and is the very first version of this tube, and is a rare as they come. I have only seen a few examples of the black plate versions and I can’t wait to hear this one in the Pendant SE!
Check out those black welded plates!
In the pic below, you can see the dish getter.
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This Brimar CV4034 (12au7 equivalent) just arrived from Tubemonger.com .
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Heck yeah! I have a few of those and love them. Get ready for some bass!
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Just arrived! I wanted to give this a shot and compare the 5AR4 sound signature against my RCA 5U4GB (which I have been loving btw).
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@gugges I’m looking forward to find out what you think.
I compared an RCA 5U4G and an Amperex 5AR4 on my Nautilus and the 5U4G just didn’t suit me at all. Tonally it was fine, but I found it lacking in drive and rhythm when playing rock music. When I replaced the 5U4G with the 5AR4, the drive and rhythm returned. This was based on my taste in music and sound signature, so YMMV.
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I have the Tung-Sol 5AR4 and Electro-Harmonix 5U4GB. Comparing the two on the Nautilus, I do agree that the 5U4GB softens the music, takes a little bit of the punch and detail.
I’ve also compared the 6L6GC STR, Tung-Sol 6550 from 1963 and JJ’s KT88. It’s the same scenario as the 5AR4 and 5U4GB to me, the KT88 punch the hardest, the 6550 softens it up a little but still sounds good and the 6L6GC STR softens them up the most. The 6L6 sounds good, but it looses that detail.
The Tung-Sol 5751 and Genalex ECC82/B749 is not as drastic but the ECC82 does soften up the music, the punch and takes just a little detail. But, the trade off, the ECC82 opens up the volume window. With the 24 step attenuator, I have a more flexibility to adjust the sound to my liking. The 5751 can be a little too much, I don’t find myself listening as long.
I think my choice of tubes so far would be the ECC82, leaning towards the KT88 and the 5AR4. Lots of combinations and choices with the handful of tubes I have on hand.
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Just received this 1960 Mullard EZ81 Blackburn for my Pendant. Thanks @Wes_S for the recommendation!
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