----- Original Message ----- From: "phillip holmes" <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>
Steven,
I don't know if anyone answered this, because there was a mile of emails with the same subject, but 2A3 (300B, 45, 211, 845, etc. etc. etc..) are all being made in Russia, China and the former Yugoslavia. All are competent, but are a pail imitation of RCA, Sylvania and Western Electric (and any other American, British or Western European tube manufacturer from the heyday of tubes). They lack most the knowledge of the details that made those old tubes last so long and produce low distortion. Also, their equipment is very old and usually out of adjustment making grid spacing erratic (wrong mu, amplification factor and miller capacitances compared to the ideal tube in the manual). There is some domestic manufacture of vacuum tubes (other than CRT, microwaves and the like) related to broadcasting. Eimac I think, or Richardson Electronics? These are, as far as I know, all of the ceramic/metal types. Also, I agree with your assessment on why tubes sound good. They're very user friendly (unless you get your finger on the B+). They compress instead of hard clipping and they usually have more headroom than transistors. The whole chain of microphone through mastering, when done in tube, has fewer opportunities for gross distortion that you CAN have with transistors and digital, when used incompetently.
Well, fifty years ago (+/-) 45's were already not to be found! I haven't checked out web sites...but, AFAIK, tubes are primarily aimed at the "Fender tube amp" market, and thus primarily 12AX7, 6V6 and 6L6 (plus the variants thereof)!
The world tends to adopt new techology and forget old technology ...without realizing that the old stuff often was "better" (in the sense of results) than the new equivalent!
Steven C. Barr