Where do you predict the tube market will go?

[wadude]

I regret not stock piling 7199s and EL34s back in 1978. Beautiful Mullard rectifiers, Phillips 6CA7s. They were like dirt, for your money’s wort’.

 

[mhardy6647]

Like vinyl...

I mean... tubes and vinyls do go together.
And horns.
Tubes and vinyls and horns.

 

[Philbo King]

Tube prices aren't too crazy... Some power tubes (like beam pentodes) are kind of pricey I guess.

Preamp Tubes

Ruby tubes have been carefully matched and tested. Our preamp tubes are designed to deliver superior sound quality and are compatible with a wide range of amplifiers and audio systems

rubytubes.com

 

[wadude]

Tube prices aren't too crazy... Some power tubes (like beam pentodes) are kind of pricey I guess.

Preamp Tubes

Ruby tubes have been carefully matched and tested. Our preamp tubes are designed to deliver superior sound quality and are compatible with a wide range of amplifiers and audio systems

rubytubes.com

I bought lots of Ruby Tubes. Mostly EL34s…a few 12AX7s and 12AU7s. But it was interesting settling for the decline in overall quality and rising prices over the years. Not saying there aren’t still good options. As a Dynaco kind of guy, it was the steady erosion of available 7199s that signaled the end of easy for me.

 

[TimF]

When gasoline auto engines and gasoline lawn mowers are penalized to the point they are rarely actually operated at the same time electricity hungry tubes will be rarely operated just like those old timey steam operated farm tractors. Similarly, long ago people stopped using sea galleys, longships, the knar and the hulk. What's a knar and what's a hulk? And what is a vacuum tube?

 

[Robin L]

Yes, I’ve seen Ralph’s opinion on this and I think it’s nonsense.

If the tube market tanks at some point, it certainly is not going to be due to “class D amps.”

The whole point of tube gear for many audiophiles is that - ostensibly at least - it sounds different from neutral solid state gear.
That’s the whole fun of it.

Class D is just another neutral, solid state amplifier technology. We’ve had sonic transparency neutrality available from consumer solid state amps since… what?… the late 60s? The tube market never went away fully.

The only reason somebody like Ralph thinks class D would undermine the tube market is that he’s got a subjective opinion “ finally class D sounds as ‘natural’ as tubes! In fact better!”

So all he’s really going on is his own subjective opinion and current preference, which all sorts of audiophiles are simply not going to share.

And that goes for whether the audiophile impressions of tube amps sounding different or legitimate in some cases or not in others, but due to bias effects. Because even then it’s not like bias effects are going to suddenly go away along with all the characteristics, people attribute to tube amplifiers.

But he also points out that class D is catching on with guitar/bass amplification, which is far more important. Anyone who lugs around a guitar amp (I do, I play with others who do) knows what a pain the sheer weight of these "portable" amps can be, and that anything to make them lighter would be welcome. And class D instrument amplification would greatly reduce demand for "valves", as guitar/bass amps have a larger consumer base for tubes than the "audiophile" market. And he also points out how sources for tubes are either drying up or getting harder to access.

Face it—like Nina Hagen sez: "Future is NOW!"

 

[Groove01]

Mainframe has been dead for 30yrs too (but not really)

 

[MCH]

When I was into collecting there were websites that allow you to track prices, for instance actual prices paid in eBay or like discogs for records. Maybe something general exists where you can get an idea.

 

[Noske]

I reckon that there are two markets. Guitar amps and domestic home amps.

Are people with guitar amps interested in vintage NOS 6SN7 tubes? Maybe vintage rectifiers like original Mullards, yeah, but what else?

I too have a bunch of boxes of "premium" pairs of 6SN7 tubes, like "real" Bad Boys (first 6 months of 1952, three holes) grey RCA 6SN7, metal based Syls, Tung Sol round plates (they are OK) etc etc that I'd like to liquidate but being in Australia it is difficult to access an international audience, plus I don't have easy access to a tube tester. Sigh.

All NOS.

Thinking that I ought to plonk a note on them to gift them to the bloke who hand-built my tube (we call them valves) amp (including winding the transformers), just in case I get bitten by a wild kangaroo. Or they will just be thrown out.

 

[SIY]

Now thats something I absolutely regret not stocking up on when they were readily available.

The power tubes I *did* stock up on are excellent but don't have a lot of resale value. So those will stay here and go into projects. But all the onesy-twosy Mullards, Siemens, Brimars, and the like... all going on the block.

 

[Devnull]

I reckon that there are two markets. Guitar amps and domestic home amps.

Are people with guitar amps interested in vintage NOS 6SN7 tubes? Maybe vintage rectifiers like original Mullards, yeah, but what else?

I too have a bunch of boxes of "premium" pairs of 6SN7 tubes, like "real" Bad Boys (first 6 months of 1952, three holes) grey RCA 6SN7, metal based Syls, Tung Sol round plates (they are OK) etc etc that I'd like to liquidate but being in Australia it is difficult to access an international audience, plus I don't have easy access to a tube tester. Sigh.

All NOS.

Thinking that I ought to plonk a note on them to gift them to the bloke who hand-built my tube (we call them valves) amp (including winding the transformers), just in case I get bitten by a wild kangaroo. Or they will just be thrown out.

I ended up giving away my father's tube collection, hundreds of Sam's photofact schematics and a couple of old tube testers. I had to give them away, there was no way I would have had the time to cull the valuable stuff from thousands of tubes.

As an aside, as a kid we'd take the bad tubes out to a field and use them as targets, first with BB guns then as we got older with .22s. Couldn't tell you the number of WE300B's I've destroyed.

 

[Groove01]

I reckon that there are two markets. Guitar amps and domestic home amps.

Are people with guitar amps interested in vintage NOS 6SN7 tubes? Maybe vintage rectifiers like original Mullards, yeah, but what else?

I too have a bunch of boxes of "premium" pairs of 6SN7 tubes, like "real" Bad Boys (first 6 months of 1952, three holes) grey RCA 6SN7, metal based Syls, Tung Sol round plates (they are OK) etc etc that I'd like to liquidate but being in Australia it is difficult to access an international audience, plus I don't have easy access to a tube tester. Sigh.

All NOS.

Thinking that I ought to plonk a note on them to gift them to the bloke who hand-built my tube (we call them valves) amp (including winding the transformers), just in case I get bitten by a wild kangaroo. Or they will just be thrown out.

By all means, feel free to box them up and send them my way - lol. I have a tube tester and would gladly take them .

Kevin at upscale audio would probably fly down and buy them all if you have boxes of them! (But seriously, I wouldn’t be upset if you sent them to me - lol)

As long as current production tubes remain available, I think tube amps (both HiFi and guitar) will be around. If for whatever reason current tube production stops, that would be the end. However, NOS tubes would turn to gold (including recent production).

The guys who like tubes generally aren’t going to switch to class D overnight. Particularly with guitar players as I’m not sure they care how it measures or about efficiency, it’s about what they can get out of them when overdriven, etc.

Like in the previous gasoline example above. People aren’t throwing away their Porsche 911 gt3 RS because battery powered cars are here.

 

[JeffS7444]

Vacuum tubes have been good to me: When I departed one job, one of the senior techs gifted me with a box filled with NOS Tung-Sol 6550 pentodes ("I heard that you like this stuff"), and the proceeds from their sale paid the rent at time when I needed it.

Then there was the TV7B/U tube tester. In the 1990s, I used to frequent a local surplus shop, and they had a stack of the things priced at $100/ea. I picked the one that looked the best, and used it for a number of years. I eventually sold it at around 4x the price.

Wish I could remember what I did with the Western Electric-branded 5755s! Used to get those for $1/ea (early 00s?). Who knew that today they'd easily fetch 35x as much? AFAIK, Raytheon was the actual manufacturer, but nevertheless, the WE brand fetches a hefty premium. So if I still had a use for the things, I'd keep the Raytheon-branded tubes for myself, and sell the WE ones.

 

[SSS]

Since I use transistor amplifiers there is no need for me to buy or keep tubes for my stereo. But I have guitar amps there the typical tubes like ECC83, EL34 and similar are needed. There I have old used quality tubes from Telefunken and others at those times which I keep for replacement. Many tube based guitar amps will work fine with tubes from current production and therefore the high priced NOS ones are not needed. Something different is when one has vintage or new hifi stereo amplifiers which react on tube quality with more or less distortion. There the NOS tubes are worthwhile and the users will pay high price for replacement. And when I restored microphone pre-amps for recording studios there good NOS is gold. Especially when a special tube type was used which was in general not so common. How the market will develop, my glass ball does unfortunately not tell it to me.

 

[Audionaut]

The generation who grew up with the tubes will pass and then it will become super niche. I don't think tubes will come back like vinyl.

I think the market for tube amplifiers and tubes has been consistently stable for years.
There are still a lot of companies in Asia, North America and Europe offering new tube amplifiers. I think that will remain the case.
Tube amplifiers have never gone away.

 

[mhardy6647]

I ended up giving away my father's tube collection, hundreds of Sam's photofact schematics and a couple of old tube testers. I had to give them away, there was no way I would have had the time to cull the valuable stuff from thousands of tubes.

My father's tubes were mostly of the color television kind (he was a TV repairman for most of my formative years, although a broadcast engineer before that)... but I do have his Sams.

 

[MattHooper]

Whatever the future, in the present, I see plenty of evidence tube amps still hold allure for audiophiles. They don’t seem to have fallen out a favor in the other subjective forums, still lots of talk about people buying or wanting tube amplifiers on Reddit, also plenty of tube amplifier stuff on YouTube.

 

[ta240]

A side question, what is the best way to sell them? Especially if you don't have a tester? I'd assume to get good money they would need to be sold with test results. And even then just jumping into it with no reputation seems like it could be hard to get top dollar.

 

[Groove01]

A side question, what is the best way to sell them? Especially if you don't have a tester? I'd assume to get good money they would need to be sold with test results. And even then just jumping into it with no reputation seems like it could be hard to get top dollar.

Untested and with no reputation definitely makes it harder to get top dollar. I think eBay would probably have the broadest reach. You could build some feedback after the first couple transactions.

Aside from eBay, maybe forums / marketplaces like DIYAudio or Audiomart where you have some forum “cred” and/or transaction history.

My personal preference would be locally if you have an active hifi network/community.

 

[win]

A side question, what is the best way to sell them? Especially if you don't have a tester? I'd assume to get good money they would need to be sold with test results. And even then just jumping into it with no reputation seems like it could be hard to get top dollar.

Me personally, I would pray that I could find the email receipt of when I purchased them and use that info if it's there. Might be wishful thinking.