Forrestyung, welcome to the audiophile world. Be prepared that you will be poisoned, you will be itching, you will be pain, you will forever be spending your money on hifi things..... To start and warm up with, browse the following popular sites in HK: http://av100fun.com/index.php?sid=ec81429af333f02b631ada31d89960be http://www.review33.com/ http://www.hififever.com/ Have fun and happy listerning.
Red: you are lucky that you have sources of tubes. I am quite head ache sometime for my tubes from bidding them on ebay.
I have bought some tubes from E-bay before. A pair is Brimar, another pair is telsa, the price is only half of Hong Kong. But my tube pre-amp can only use Ecc88 and cannot use E88cc (many amps should be interchangable), so my choice is limited. :crying:
Ha ha, first of your headache My limited knowledge: 1. E88CC is better than ECC88 (because of lower noise) 2. E88CC is interchangeble with 6922 3. ECC88 is interchaneable with 6DJ8 4. E is usually European made and "6" ie. the number is usually american made. 5. ECC88 is lower voltage (130) and E88CC at 300, so, it is not surprising that yours cannot be interchange because of the voltage difference. (of course some design that both tubes can be interchange).
Forrest: Though sometime you can get cheaper tubes on Ebay, but you need to watch out for the tubes' lives. I am lucky that I have a hifi fan who has a tube-tester to see how effective a tube is.
LOL.....Mark! . I was told that also. Seems like the tube manufacturing technology is indeed stepping foward. but at the same time the quality is running backward!
tube's life is the first thing. u also need to take extra caution on some famous tube that u wanna bid. they might be some "re-mark" tubes!
Despite, I recently bid sucessfully at ebay: 4 Tungsol, 1960, 6X4 at US$35 and 3 Western Electric, 1960, 412A at very very high price :-(
those tungsol should be some reissue right mark? coz i bought 4 tungsol 6550 (new old stock) in hk for $400 US around 10 years ago! by the way. u build tube amps yourself?
6922 / 6DJ8 are ridiculously expensive. but unfortunately for a good reason. unfortunately, gone are the days when i would pay so much for two little light bulbs.
are u still using those little light bulbs kwun? or just like what i was doing. packed them well and put them underneath your bed?
Red: I once bought one from Tube World in U.S., a 1953 Tungsol 6X4 costs me US$40. For this 1960's one, frankly, I have no idea if it is re-issue (it is still on the way to me). No, but I have a purist Hi Fi fan, he is BUILDING up the preamp for me. This preamp borrows the design of the Audio Note M7. He had already built two, and I just love the quality of sound.
your friend had built one for u? that's good enough mark! how's your m7. did he build it with a circuit board or with only point to point wiring? again. old guys always say point to point wiring is far more better!
almost. i have a card board box of tubes that i gathered over the years for amps that came and gone. i have always wanted to spend the time and build myself a nice pair of 300B amps. but never managed to get the time to actually sit down and do it... if i had knew, i would've invited you and Marky to listen to my parent's system in HK. ah well, next time...
thx for the invitation. u will have that chance kwun! november this year right? cool, u know how to build one! but think twice b4 u build a 300b amp. with my limited knowledge. the power output form a single-end class a 300b amp isn't that strong. it's a bit difficult to find a good pair of speakers for it. and also the price of (nos) western electric 300b tubes are SKY HIGH! for me. those are some really difficult tasks to deal with.
