No More Russian Tubes

I received this in an e-mail yesterday:

By my parts lists from EHX, that includes the following new manufacture brands:

• Electro Harmonix
• Electro Harmonix Gold
• Genalex Gold Lion
• Mullard
• Sovtek
• Svetlana
• TungSol

I'm guessing that JJ tubes are still available, still being produced in Slovakia, as best I can tell. EH actually has a warehouse in Russia where most of the distribution originates.

 

Jason's story on Head-Fi is a pretty decent read that expands on this.

I'd be curious to find out if manufacturing for domestic use will continue or if there would be enough demand anymore.

 

I imagine that giant tube amp (Tyr?) that Schiit was working on will disappear.

 

I have to be pointed in the direction of specific head fi threads so would have missed this if not shared. Thanks.

 

I really want to make jokes about this, about the impotence of it all on the geopolitical scale. But, it really will hurt a lot of good vendors in our community. This really sucks.

I'm also tempted to make jokes about these new fandgangled inventions called 'transistors', but supply there has been super shitty as well.

 

New Sensor Corp (owns all those brands) also OEMs for SED, NEVZ-Soyuz, and Voshod so probably include those.

 

I feel like a lot of people are about to discover Chinese new production tubes.

 

And JJ tubes since those are Slovak tubes. They are about to be overrun.

I had a feeling this was coming. It is mostly just going to drive tube prices even higher and lead to more tube hoarding. It will be even harder to get Russian NOS tubes.

@Lyander and others:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...most-improbable-start-up.701900/post-16859594

 

It’s over. The hifi and pro world must deal with it. No more Tung Sol or Golden Lion means it’s over. China’s tube factory was relocated and hasn’t gotten off the ground again due to covid. There weren’t any clean Mullards or German tubes really left on the open market anyway. They were all gone years ago.

the distortion in most old tube gear came from
The transformers. Then transformers got cleaned up by cinemas, Jensen, tango, etc. even the ones who make dirty crazy distorting ones like Hammond can make one that doesn’t go nuts with distortion and hysteris.

also tube revival gear mostly flat out sucked. Distortion machines. Not useful for playback unless the synergy was perfect and made the recording better. Compare that to RCA and TAB. The new stuff mostly sucked. Old gear was clean. New gear was made to use the tubes as distortion, even cool stuff like Manley, Drawmer 1960 something line (1960, 1961, 1968, 1969), most Retro, the Universal Audio recreations (LA2A, 610, 710), most Wu audio, etc.

Some big exceptions were a couple of the Wu amps, Schiit Saga, better Eddie Current, @OJneg ’s designs, Retro 176, and a few others.

Then a lot of the recordings that audiophiles thought went through tubes went through none except the guitar amps and maybe an la2a on vocals if it was done in a big studio. Most of what they’re hearing is transformer distortion outside of the tube splatted drums in the 60s that don’t come back until the 90s really. A lot do this 70s stuff hit no tubes until The European pressing was limited by an TAB u73b and most of those euro pressings don’t have that fat American sound…

 

Though I certainly don't follow the tube market particularly closely, I've got to think someone will come along to meet the demand. Jelco going out of business was a massive bummer for those in the market for a good, reasonably priced tonearm, but other makers have stepped up.

I'd imagine guitarists are freaking right now, as surely there are far more tubes in guitar amps than hifi amps out there.

Semi-luckily, for me, my next rig will be solid-state anyhow. I like to have my 2ch always on.

And, of course, as everyone would no doubt acknowledge, events in Ukraine far, far outstrip in global importance this temporary interruption in the esoteric realm of tube manufacturing.

 

So true. The difference between the LA-2A and the LA-3A is that I can’t hear the LA-3A working! It’s not adding color. I just have to trust the meters. It’s the most transparent dynamic control device I have ever used.

Context: both are optical limiters, but LA-3A is all discrete transistor circuit. LA-2A has one tube with transformer output. LA-2A commonly used on vocals and very “musical.” That term would not be used if it was not adding something.

I still think tubes have their place and I still love them. Even with the distortion, and harmonics, and color.

 

You can add David Hill's Crane Song Trakker to the list of most transparent analog compressors. Unbelievable how much compression on vocals can be applied with it and not hear compression artifacts.

 

Daking FETs too. Amazing filters. Yet Crane Song and Daking stuff tends to sit on the shelf unless it's blown out.

 

Tubes being on the ban list is beyond idiotic. I guess the Kremlin decided that the most efficient way to "hurt" the West was to impact guitarists and a handful of weirdos that use tubes in hi-fi equipment. There's a mighty moron behind this.

 

I've been quite happy with the Psvane and Shuguang tubes I've been using in my Freya the last couple years. Barring Winnie invading Taiwan hopefully they will remain available.

Also glad I bought a quad of LISSTs while they were still a thing. Had been thinking of selling them, but I think I will scrap that idea for now.

 

Not to be selfish, but I was just think about grabbing a set or two of new production tubes for my Freya+ as backup. (running some NOS rca/Ken rad currently) Any must snag new production 6SN7 tubes I should have on my radar before they become unobtanium? I actually didn't think JJ were half bad when I tried in the past, but I imagine even the none Russian tubes might become tough if things get bad enough.

I just got the Tavish Adagio that uses a variety of 6 electro harmonix/JJ tubes as stock also, Scott of Tavish prefers due to being lowest noise. Thinking of boutique manufacturers like him and how tough it will be.

SW51+ tubes already seemed tough to snag. Maybe we need to figure out if there is any source for a SBAF group buy so we can all snag some backups.

 

I mean, there are a lot of variables, but the JJ ECC802S is my favorite of the modern production 12AU7 variants. In my Crack it somehow manages to have the most detail and the fullest/warmest sound. The equivalent Genalex Gold Lion at twice the price is nice, but not quite there.

 

I think everyone is thinking that now. Most recently I've settled on a quad of Psvane UK6SN7 in my OG Freya. Tubes are such a subjective thing though, so someone else may not like them at all. From the literature;

"This tube was designed and modeled around the British Mullard ECC32/6SN7 and Brimar ECC32. Both of which featured shouldered glass and a unique plate structure which was also nearly perfectly replicated by Psvane."

They seem readily available. I just ordered another quad just to be safe going forward.

 

This was all Putin's plan to keep the good tubes for himself.

 

seems like a perfect time for Schiit to strike a deal with Linlai. 400 tube minimum for "custom" orders..