NOS tubes and plate voltages

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greiswig
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Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:19 pm
Location: Oregon

NOS tubes and plate voltages

Post by greiswig »

Has anyone else noticed that ANOS preamp tubes tend to have a lower plate voltage for the same dropping string and other R values? It almost doesn't seem to matter which of the old tubes I have that I put in, the voltages are almost always lower than the Tung Sol and JJ tubes.

They still sound good, but...just wondering. And wondering how much of the "sounding good" factor is because of that voltage difference?
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thyx
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Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:26 pm
Location: Tacoma, WA

Re: NOS tubes and plate voltages

Post by thyx »

greiswig wrote:Has anyone else noticed that ANOS preamp tubes tend to have a lower plate voltage for the same dropping string and other R values? It almost doesn't seem to matter which of the old tubes I have that I put in, the voltages are almost always lower than the Tung Sol and JJ tubes.

They still sound good, but...just wondering. And wondering how much of the "sounding good" factor is because of that voltage difference?
Most modern tubes just don't draw as much current. This could be true for a number of reasons, but it is true that tubes begin to draw less current (in the same set of conditions) as they get older. Draw your own conclusions.
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David Root
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Location: Chilliwack BC

Re: NOS tubes and plate voltages

Post by David Root »

The old tubes have higher transconductance I believe, I notice this lower voltage effect especially with Amperex Heerlen tubes.

Old Mazdas, Tungsols, RCA, Mullards do it too but not as much. At least in my relatively limited experience, limited by $$ that is!

This is because they were built to a spec, not to a price, and for various reasons I think (opinion alert!) current production cannot match the old materials, some of which are basically unobtainium for health and pollution reasons.
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