Noisy NOS Telefunken tubes

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A good supplier will do you good.
Mine sent me some nice alternatives as a replacement.
Some will argue a good supplier would have sent good ones in the first place.
But maybe it isn't always that simple.

If you're willing to pay top dollar for Telefunken, you may still get lucky.
And there should be ample quantities out there somewhere.
Rumor (!) has it or had it that the late Oliver Archut had collected huge amounts of Telefunken tubes.
He was a fellow member, but unfortunately we can't ask him anymore.
Perhaps his heirs?
 
ricardo said:
The best valves (tubes) in the known universe came from the huge Mullard factory in Blackburn, UK
A stone's throw from where I was born and brought up. My uncle used to work there (though not on the valves). The site is (was?) a big Universal CD replication plant later on.
 
Matt Nolan said:
ricardo said:
The best valves (tubes) in the known universe came from the huge Mullard factory in Blackburn, UK
A stone's throw from where I was born and brought up. My uncle used to work there (though not on the valves). The site is (was?) a big Universal CD replication plant later on.

This place?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDvF89Bh27Y&feature=youtu.be&t=3m5s
 
buildafriend said:
Matt Nolan said:
ricardo said:
The best valves (tubes) in the known universe came from the huge Mullard factory in Blackburn, UK
A stone's throw from where I was born and brought up. My uncle used to work there (though not on the valves). The site is (was?) a big Universal CD replication plant later on.

This place?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDvF89Bh27Y&feature=youtu.be&t=3m5s

What a great black and white film!
Must be about as old as I am ...
It seems a miracle these valves could be made in that quality at affordable prices.
And of course pretty much all the precision work (that isn't done by machines) is done by women.  ;)
 
That's the place. I think I might have seen this film before. I can't watch it here at work, but if they say the words "spiralised tungsten wire which is wrapped around a molybdenum mandel which is later dissolved in acid" then I have seen it. The "received pronunciation" old British TV accent is priceless! Especially the pronunciation of "acid".
 
Yup, Received Pronunciation.  :D
Along with the rattling R you now only still hear in parts of Scotland, I think.

Nice and slow, too.
Today, the same information would be fired at you in about seven minutes rather than over half an hour.
 
micaddict said:
Yup, Received Pronunciation.  :D
Along with the rattling R you now only still hear in parts of Scotland, I think.
And Iceland and southern Germany and other places, but not when speaking English, so you are right really, I'm just being pedantic ;-)

Nice and slow, too.
Today, the same information would be fired at you in about seven minutes rather than over half an hour.
Sadly, in the UK today you would get one seventh of the information, spread over half an hour, with so much repetition and recapping it makes me scream at the TV "Tell me something new! Please!!"
 
And Iceland and southern Germany and other places, but not when speaking English, so you are right really, I'm just being pedantic ;-)

OK, short hijack then.
I hope no one shoots me.

Enter alveolar trill.
I'm from the Netherlands and here we use it, too. But it is losing ground to the uvular trill, that once was used only in the southern parts of my country.
The uvualr trill, or French R if I may say so, took over most of Germany and other places, too. But southeast Germany as well as (east) Switzerland and Austria mostly still have the alveolar trill.

But it looks like you know all this already.  :)

Sorry. Please carry on, folks.
 
micaddict said:
And Iceland and southern Germany and other places, but not when speaking English, so you are right really, I'm just being pedantic ;-)

OK, short hijack then.
I hope no one shoots me.

Enter alveolar trill.
I'm from the Netherlands and here we use it, too. But it is losing ground to the uvular trill, that once was used only in the southern parts of my country.
The uvualr trill, or French R if I may say so, took over most of Germany and other places, too. But southeast Germany as well as (east) Switzerland and Austria mostly still have the alveolar trill.

But it looks like you know all this already.  :)

Sorry. Please carry on, folks.
No, no, you educate me with this distinction in trills. I may have to do some youtubing tonight for nice examples. Meanwhile, Bjork saying "Arvo Part" is still one of the best things I have ever heard.
 
Yeah, they are actually all marked 6072, seems like the wise thing to do since they've exploded in value 30x what I paid to put them into studio stock.

A tangent from another thread:

In an RCA BC-2B console I've burned in several sets of new EH 12AY7's for 40 hours or so, which are the 1st gain stage in every amp.  The samples burned in PRE's are quieter than the samples burned in either PGM or MON amps.  PRE samples moved to PGM/MON maintain a lower noise floor going forward.  The PRE's are much lower current, while PGM/MON are run more as power stages at higher current.  My slight amount of evidence suggests lower initial current makes a quieter tube for the long term.  Those noisier PGM/MON burned tubes are much quieter when moved to a PRE, which may be fine if the PRE will only be used as a standalone PRE without further gain, as it would be in the original console structure, but far too noisy if then bussed into the PGM amp. 
 
Doug, when you're burning tubes in, do you apply a tone to the mic pre, or are they just running at idele?
 
Here is a guy who makes his own tubes. 100% quality control!  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzyXMEpq4qw

(Interesting to see how he cuts the anodes with his Swiss army knife!  ::) )
 
I've decided against this for a cosmetic reason.  The tubes in question have very delicate silkscreen that will come off with the slightest touch, and I'm afraid baking them will remove it completely.  Not knowing what the future will bring, and not in need of the whole batch right now, I think I'll proceed as normal and take the risk.
 
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