Tube Availability

[MattHooper]

It's been wild watching the tube supply situation around the web. Stock depleting like mad, prices skyrocketing every day. Most vendors are now completely sold out of any Tung Sol and many other Russian tubes. Thank goodness I didn't hesitate and stocked up fast!

Well...except for the 6922 Electro Harmonix tubes I would need as back up for my preamp. Unfortunately, this announcement just occured:

Attention All EHX Tube Customers

Yesterday, Russia imposed a ban on the export of some 200 goods in response to the sanctions imposed on it over the current conflict in Ukraine. We have confirmed that the ban applies to our seven brands of Russian tubes. Currently, the ban is set to remain in effect until the end of the calendar year.

Given this export ban, we will not be receiving any further tube inventory for these brands. A myriad of pressures — including continued strains on the supply chain, escalating internal expenses, mounting inflation, and an ever-evolving legal landscape (particularly in light of the Ukraine conflict) — have created a very fluid and ambiguous environment. Until we can properly assess the impact of these factors, we will not honor any new orders or ship any more Russian tubes on back order.

Rock & Roll,
Mike Matthews
Founder & President

© 2022, Electro-Harmonix
All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing in this email are the property of their respective owners.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

It's been wild watching the tube supply situation around the web. Stock depleting like mad, prices skyrocketing every day. Most vendors are now completely sold out of any Tung Sol and many other Russian tubes. Thank goodness I didn't hesitate and stocked up fast!

Well...except for the 6922 Electro Harmonix tubes I would need as back up for my preamp. Unfortunately, this announcement just occured:

Attention All EHX Tube Customers

Yesterday, Russia imposed a ban on the export of some 200 goods in response to the sanctions imposed on it over the current conflict in Ukraine. We have confirmed that the ban applies to our seven brands of Russian tubes. Currently, the ban is set to remain in effect until the end of the calendar year.

Given this export ban, we will not be receiving any further tube inventory for these brands. A myriad of pressures — including continued strains on the supply chain, escalating internal expenses, mounting inflation, and an ever-evolving legal landscape (particularly in light of the Ukraine conflict) — have created a very fluid and ambiguous environment. Until we can properly assess the impact of these factors, we will not honor any new orders or ship any more Russian tubes on back order.

Rock & Roll,
Mike Matthews
Founder & President

© 2022, Electro-Harmonix
All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing in this email are the property of their respective owners.

I was going to write a reply to this post but just couldn't; its just all too depressing. Some of humanity is nowhere near ready for prime time.

 

[MattHooper]

I was going to write a reply to this post but just couldn't; its just all too depressing. Some of humanity is nowhere near ready for prime time.

I don't think a lack of tubes should get someone depressed or says something terrible about humanity. On the subject of the thread and such export bans, I feel sorry for businesses like Electro-Harmonix and others who will be scrambling. But many will be shouldering some amount of burden for all the export wars of course, given we need to stop the horrors in Ukraine. (But I don't want to make this in to a "war" thread as this is an audio forum and this is a specific thread about tubes).

But then I'm not sure of your point? But it seems you are angry about something? Is the Electro Harmonix announcement just reminding you of the sh*tty behaviour of the Russians I guess?

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I don't think a lack of tubes should get someone depressed or says something terrible about humanity. On the subject of the thread and such export bans, I feel sorry for businesses like Electro-Harmonix and others who will be scrambling. But many will be shouldering some amount of burden for all the export wars of course, given we need to stop the horrors in Ukraine. (But I don't want to make this in to a "war" thread as this is an audio forum and this is a specific thread about tubes).

But then I'm not sure of your point? But it seems you are angry about something?

The post was generalized about the events which has made all this a reality. I'm not really angry, but I am more cynical than ever (for a variety of reasons, given recent history) that the the human race in general is a shit show.

 

[MattHooper]

The post was generalized about the events which has made all this a reality. I'm not really angry, but I am more cynical than ever (for a variety of reasons, given recent history) that the the human race in general is a shit show.

Hey, I hear you on that! Understood!

 

[Dustyc]

I can’t remember the company that Roger Modjeski did a preamp for back in the 70s, but also an all 6DJ8 design.

Sad reality is that there’s no tube quiet enough for LOMC input stages. The only way to make that work is a transformer, and correct implementations can be counted on the fingers of one mangled hand.

One other comment: the SP3 was basically a copy of the Marantz, and was frankly a poor preamp.

I think Roger did the Beveridge RM1, RM2. 10 tubes in that one. The precision fidelity c4 had 12 tubes.

 

[dfuller]

Well...except for the 6922 Electro Harmonix tubes I would need as back up for my preamp.

Not to worry, JJ makes an excellent E88CC.

 

[MattHooper]

Not to worry, JJ makes an excellent E88CC.

That would be good. Especially if they will be indistinguishable from the Electro Harmonix.

My previous Electro Harmonix 6922s started going bad and for the first time I tried some "recommended' NOS tubes - BEL E88CC / 6922 Philips SQ Design. I did not like the sound of the preamp with those (expensive!) tubes and had to order more Electro-Harmonix to get the sound I like back.

 

[SIY]

I think Roger did the Beveridge RM1, RM2. 10 tubes in that one. The precision fidelity c4 had 12 tubes.

Yeah, it was the Beveridge I was thinking about. Which I should have remembered because my first startup's office and lab was right where Beveridge had been.

 

[H-713]

Is Chinese tube production back online? I know for a while it was greatly reduced.

Also, anyone know where the current crop of 3-500Zs, 811As and 572Bs are made?

 

[anmpr1]

I feel sorry for businesses like Electro-Harmonix and others who will be scrambling.

I don't know their sales spread, but Electro also has the peddle market, and can likely cover some portion of tube losses with those. Their amp line is a mix of tube and SS. Of course in pedals and amps, EH has competition.

According to their Web site, Electro owns the Russian tube manufacturing facillity. I guess they could ship product to China, rebrand it, and then move it along. But that's probably illegal in the context of an import or export sanction.

Electro brands: Tung-Sol, Electro-Harmonix, EH Gold, Genalex Gold Lion, Mullard, Svetlana & Sovtek.

Is Chinese tube production back online? I know for a while it was greatly reduced.

Some places still sell Shuguang. An AliExpress vendor has four 'matched' 6V6 on sale for $80.00 plus free shipping, along with a three dollar coupon 'if you act now'. Delivery is promised sometime in April. I would like to buy four, but just my luck and new China sanctions will happen. I've never bought from Ali.

 

[egellings]

The tubes in the B100 were cascoded.

 

[MattHooper]

Agh!

As I've mentioned, for at least a month or more I've had the Benchmark LA4 in place of my CJ Premier 16LS2 tube preamp. Loved the sound of my system with the LA4 - seems a bit more "transparent to the source," neutral and clean. I'd hoped I weened myself from the tube preamp so I could sell the CJ. But since the Electro Harmonix 6922 tubes that I like in the CJ are going fast I figured I'd better check out the CJ preamp again. I replaced the LA4 with the CJ and...oh goodness...what utterly gorgeous sound! Not quite as neutral and transparent but, wow that ease, "bloom," organic quality. As an example: Where some old funky records with bright horns could get a bit "ouchy" with the LA4 as the preamp, the horns sounded vivid with the CJ, but also richer, more relaxing to my ears. I thought "I'm not ready to give this up yet" so I quickly ordered a back up set of EH 6922 tubes.

Ah, the life of an audiophool.

 

[egellings]

It's not easy being an audio toob crazie. Day in, day out, we clean our glass, check, fret over and adjust our grid bias, and who knows what else, all for that magical glow. Gladly, they have no right to sound that good. I 'spoze.

 

[H-713]

It's not easy being an audio toob crazie. Day in, day out, we clean our glass, check, fret over and adjust our grid bias, and who knows what else, all for that magical glow. Gladly, they have no right to sound that good. I 'spoze.

I bias my tube amps about once every six months and dust bi-weekly. Of course, the dusting is easy compared to a solid-state amp with a fan.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being my lawnmower and 10 being my boat, my tube amp receives a 3 on the "required maintenance" scale.

 

[egellings]

I agree, my nervous puddle-piddling over the amplifiers is more of a fetish than a necessity. The power amps are my own home brews, so there's a "nothing's too good for my little Fi-fi, do you understand? N-n-n-n-nothing!" effect operating there, too. Plus, fiddling with them is fun. I'm sure that a once-a-month dusting would do just fine, but, what the hey.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I agree, my nervous puddle-piddling over the amplifiers is more of a fetish than a necessity. The power amps are my own home brews, so there's a "nothing's too good for my little Fi-fi, do you understand? N-n-n-n-nothing!" effect operating there, too. Plus, fiddling with them is fun. I'm sure that a once-a-month dusting would do just fine, but, what the hey.

Now I feel like neglectful because I never dust my tube amplifiers.

 

[MattHooper]

Now I feel like neglectful because I never dust my tube amplifiers.

Yeah I very rarely dust mine. At least over the years. But mine have been placed sort of out of site for a long time. I got rid of some equipment on my rack so recently I've been able to give them a bit more "pride of placement" out in the open...and I'm finding myself a bit more conscientious in occasionally dusting. They just look so nice when clean and spiffy.

 

[Xulonn]

Unbelievable. The matched quad of Electro-Harmonix 6CA7s arrived in Boquete today. I ordered them from The Tube Store in Hamilton, Ontaio Canada on Monday, and they made it via UPS to my package forwarder in Miami in time to get to Panama City, then 350 miles to David, our provincial capital, then 25 miles up the mountain to Boquete, where I picked them up at 11am this morning.

After removing the tacky blue paper labels that The Tube Store puts on all larger tubes with bases, and then cleaning off the glue residue, I put them into my YarLand EL34 PP auto-bias Class-A amplifier. No issues, and they are happily playing my collection (5 CDs ripped to MP3 VBR) of Beethoven Piano Trios by the Beaux Arts Trio from 1982.

I didn't hear any "improvement" or "difference" in the sound, nor did I expect to. However, when the two Electro-Harmonix 6SN7s arrive next week, I will then have two complete sets of relatively inexpensive tubes - the original Shuguang Tubes (four EL34-Bs and two 6SN7s) that came with the amplifier, the Electro-Harmonix 6CA7s and 6SN7s, and two dirt-cheap GE JAN 5670's.

The stock Shuguang EL34-B output tubes are slightly "fatter' than the skinny classic pentode EL34s, and it turns out that they are actually beam tetrodes like the classic 6CA7s. Plate disapation of the EL34A peode is 25w, and the EL34B beam tetrode is 30w.

 

[MattHooper]

Unbelievable. The matched quad of Electro-Harmonix 6CA7s arrived in Boquete today. I ordered them from The Tube Store in Hamilton, Ontaio Canada on Monday, and they made it via UPS to my package forwarder in Miami in time to get to Panama City, then 350 miles to David, our provincial capital, then 25 miles up the mountain to Boquete, where I picked them up at 11am this morning.

After removing the tacky blue paper labels that The Tube Store puts on all larger tubes with bases, and then cleaning off the glue residue, I put them into my YarLand EL34 PP auto-bias Class-A amplifier. No issues, and they are happily playing my collection (5 CDs ripped to MP3 VBR) of Beethoven Piano Trios by the Beaux Arts Trio from 1982.

I didn't hear any "improvement" or "difference" in the sound, nor did I expect to. However, when the two Electro-Harmonix 6SN7s arrive next week, I will then have two complete sets of relatively inexpensive tubes - the original Shuguang Tubes (four EL34-Bs and two 6SN7s) that came with the amplifier, the Electro-Harmonix 6CA7s and 6SN7s, and two dirt-cheap GE JAN 5670's.

The stock Shuguang EL34-B output tubes are slightly "fatter' than the skinny classic pentode EL34s, and it turns out that they are actually beam tetrodes like the classic 6CA7s. Plate disapation of the EL34A peode is 25w, and the EL34B beam tetrode is 30w.

Congrats!

When you started with "unbelievable" I was waiting for "and when I put them in my amp 1/2 of them were dead!" Glad it didn't end that way

Good to hear too since I ordered KT120s from The Tube Store (I actually live not to far from there) and just last night I ordered the Electro Harmonix 6922 tubes from them as well. The order went through so I presume and hope that means they have stock. Being the weekend I can't phone and check as I normally do. But from my scouring of the internet The Tube Store seems to be "it" now in terms of still having plenty of tubes in stock.