On Friday, June 19, 2015 at 2:59:40 PM UTC-4, Chaos Hydra wrote:
The all powerful group, I invoke thee! Well guys, I have only been shopping tubes from ebay before, but for my new project I am thinking just shop from one place and be done with it while saving the shipping. So since yall are more experienced, how good are the other tube sites out there? Currently, I kind of considering
http://tubes-store.com and buy dozens of IV-17. My major concern is the quality of the tubes and the safety of payment. I don't care about shipping time for now but it is still better to know how long is it going to take them ship the stuff to the US. Please share your comment of different tube dealers and that will be great! Thanks!
I don't believe I have dealt with that seller. The $5.00 price per tube seems a bit high, as the eBay sellers of small batches (between 4 and 12 tubes) seem to be asking about half that price. The only technical issue with buying batches from multiple sellers is you will likely end up with very different date codes which have slightly different internal construction. If aesthetics are critical, it is good to purchase a larger lot from a single seller. These:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331072689210 are from a seller I have dealt with in the past (for a different model of tube) and at $2.90 each are still a lot less expensive than the link you posted.
If you are in the continental US and are looking for large quantities, drop me a note at the address I posted this reply from - I'm pretty sure I have 700+ pieces of IV-17 and I'm in the NYC area.
The IV-17 is a good, solid tube with a good lifetime. The only annoying thing about them is they are often shipped with the wires twisted together, and getting all the wires sorted out and into the correct holes on the PCB can be a pain, as can aligning the tubes for height, angle, and so on. But it is rewarding if you get them right, as you can make large displays without going broke buying B-7971's:
http://www.tmk.com/transient/6F5S8672-s.jpg