Quality of Sovtek 6V6GT?
Casino
I have been reading some old posts discussing the quality of the
Sovtek 6V6's (NOT the new Electro Harmonix 6V6's). Seems like the
Sovtek version (one with the back glass) is one of their (Sovtek's)
worst tubes. I've heard stories of how they melt and/or give
fireworks displays.
I have a quad of Sovtek 6V6's (black glass) which I bought back in
1996 as spares for my pair of 1948 vintage RCA 6V6 mono amps. Right
now, the Sovtek 6V6's are in my Dynaco ST-70 with its power on for
more than 30 hours and not a single problem so far (that's over 400+
volts on the plates!). The transformers ran cooler, and the tubes
were of normal operating temperature, even with the Biaset a little
above 0.78 volts. The sound quality is getting better and sounds
identical to NOS 6L6G's, though not as good as my RCA or Tung Sol
6V6's. I even used the ST-70 (with the Sovtek 6V6's) to play
background music for my daily meditation and was quite pleased with
the sound. Were the 6V6's from a good batch, or could they be NOS
Russian 6V6 equivalents which Sovtek purchased and relabelled as
6V6's? I would appreciate any comments on the old Sovtek 6V6's. I'm
going to purchase a quad of Electro Harmonix 6V6's after school on
Thursday and will compare them against NOS and the Sovteks.
C.W.
Jon Yaeger
- J
In article <53893536.02092...@posting.google.com>,
Sebastian
http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s.jpg
http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_dat.jpg
one tested DOA and trying to pull it out of the socket again revealled
its guts:
http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_gta.jpg
darn good! The Reflektor plant in Saratov made them in the 1960's.
Mine all (32 pcs.) measure equally within 48 to 52 mA under Test, most
of them around 50 mA.
http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_pak.jpg
http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_dats.jpg
w/kind regards, Sebastian
Casino wrote:
>
> Hi All
>
> I have been reading some old posts discussing the quality of the
> Sovtek 6V6's (NOT the new Electro Harmonix 6V6's). Seems like the
> Sovtek version (one with the back glass) is one of their (Sovtek's)
> worst tubes. I've heard stories of how they melt and/or give
> fireworks displays.
PS: those are the chinese ones... no joke. mine do stand 500 Vplate and
425 Vscreen.
Tim Eisenacher
install in amp at my shop. I don't like the new 6v6 they seem to run
hotter. Sino makes a 6v6 similar to the old sovtek, but made in china. so
don't use the ones that rattle.
Mikko Kankaanpää
That 6L6 tube ( http://ebastian.de/tubeshop/ ) next to Sovtek 6L6GB look
exatly like my 6P3S-E tubes made by Reflekftor. But there are something
other writen in that tube than just 6P3S-E and date... ...What brand are
those?
Yours,
Mikko Kankaanpää
"Sebastian" <sebaki....@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:3D90A60D...@t-online.de...
Mikko Kankaanpää
have a friend in germany that could bring me couple if I just know where to
get these at reasonable prices...
Mikko
"Sebastian" <sebaki....@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:3D90A60D...@t-online.de...
Sebastian
>
> And by the way, Where in Germany have you bought those Reflector tubes? I
> have a friend in germany that could bring me couple if I just know where to
> get these at reasonable prices...
>
> Mikko
Mikko, your email isnt working, so i answer here:
those 6L6WGB were labelled NAtional Electronics, they are a wholesale -
buyer for contracts with various manufacturers. the tube itself *is* a
6P3S but with narrow tolerances. i bought 100 pcs for EUR 1100 at a
surplus dealer, paired them all out, with *many* quads, sold the major
amount on ebay and kept two quads for me.
mit freundlichen Gruessen
Sebastian Kirner
seb...@t-online.de
Andrus Aaslaid
Sebastian
don't use html, though, thank you.
Andrus Aaslaid wrote:
[nothing but 3 empty lines]
Casino
both internally and on the outside. I suppose Sovtek bought NOS 6p6s'
until supply dried-up, then switched to crappy new production 6V6's
with which people were experiencing problems from poor sound quality
to melt-down and fires. Do you know where in North America I can
purchase an NOS matched quad of 6p6s' (with original Reflector
labelling and boxes)? I would like to compare them to my Sovteks to
see if they are the same. Is there a way to tell when the Sovtek
6V6's were produced (they came in 1996 Sovtek cartons but I suppose
the tubes could date as early as 1950's?)?
> http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s.jpg
> http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_dat.jpg
> one tested DOA and trying to pull it out of the socket again revealled
> its guts:
> http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_gta.jpg
>
> darn good! The Reflektor plant in Saratov made them in the 1960's.
> Mine all (32 pcs.) measure equally within 48 to 52 mA under Test, most
> of them around 50 mA.
>
> http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_pak.jpg
>
> http://www.ebastian.de/x/6p6s_dats.jpg
>
Ned Carlson
wrote:
>Hi All
>
>I have been reading some old posts discussing the quality of the
>Sovtek 6V6's (NOT the new Electro Harmonix 6V6's). Seems like the
>Sovtek version (one with the back glass) is one of their (Sovtek's)
>worst tubes. I've heard stories of how they melt and/or give
>fireworks displays.
Yeah, but people did things to those 6V6's that would've
curled the hair oof the people who were building them.
A Deluxe Reverb runs about the same voltage and bias as you
are doing with your ST70, but NORMALLY* you don't plug a
guitar into PAS3 and drive the output of your ST70 to full-goose
clipping. That's what people typically do with DR's, and it's
a bit harder on the tubes than simply running them with
normal listening volumes.
I'm sure some of the bad rep is because some folks popped them
into Fenders without bothering to check the bias, which is a bad
idea because of the very narrow bias range that 6V6's have to be
set at in those amplifiers.
*I say "normally" people don't do this with ST70's, but there's no
reason not to. (it might be kinda rough on 6V6's!) AAMOF an ST70
is a pretty nice sounding as a guitar amp.
>
>I have a quad of Sovtek 6V6's (black glass) which I bought back in
>1996 as spares for my pair of 1948 vintage RCA 6V6 mono amps. Right
>now, the Sovtek 6V6's are in my Dynaco ST-70 with its power on for
>more than 30 hours and not a single problem so far (that's over 400+
>volts on the plates!).
Yeah, but bear in mind that anecdotes ain't statistics.
If you went through a bunch of them, you'd probably
find a higher number of them fail than under more normal
conditions.
I would say that used as intended they're pretty reliable
in my experience altho I'm sure the overall QC was better
back in the old days.
> The transformers ran cooler,
Sure, since it's running at about half the normal load...
and the tubes
>were of normal operating temperature, even with the Biaset a little
>above 0.78 volts. The sound quality is getting better and sounds
>identical to NOS 6L6G's, though not as good as my RCA or Tung Sol
>6V6's. I even used the ST-70 (with the Sovtek 6V6's) to play
>background music for my daily meditation and was quite pleased with
>the sound.
You might try hooking your 8 ohm speaker to the 4 ohm tap,
which will give the 6V6's a load they'd probably be happier with.
Were the 6V6's from a good batch, or could they be NOS
>Russian 6V6 equivalents which Sovtek purchased and relabelled as
>6V6's?
That's possible, they've done this kind of thing before,
eg:, I've seen Sovtek 6N1's and 811's with 1970's date codes.
However, NOS Russian tubes Sovtek gets generally will have Russian
marks as well as the date codes, altho it may be possible
to buff them off.Generally, they're not ambitious enough to do that.
NOS Russian tubes made for export (often surreptiously to the
USA via West Germany or the UK to get MFN duty rates
in the US), usually wouldn't have had the Russian marks.
Ned Carlson Triode Electronics "where da tubes are!"
5633 W Irving Park Rd Chicago, IL, 60634 USA
ph 773-871-7459 fax 773-871-7938
11:00 to 7:00 PM CT (1700-0100 UTC) M-F
http://www.triodeelectronics.com
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants
us to be happy."
Benjamin Franklin
Sebastian
>
> Other than the labelling, they look exactly like the Sovtek 6V6GT's,
> both internally and on the outside. I suppose Sovtek bought NOS 6p6s'
> until supply dried-up, then switched to crappy new production 6V6's
> with which people were experiencing problems from poor sound quality
> to melt-down and fires. Do you know where in North America I can
> purchase an NOS matched quad of 6p6s' (with original Reflector
> labelling and boxes)? I would like to compare them to my Sovteks to
> see if they are the same. Is there a way to tell when the Sovtek
> 6V6's were produced (they came in 1996 Sovtek cartons but I suppose
> the tubes could date as early as 1950's?)?
As long as they haven't been completely relabelled (hint:Westinghouse,
e.g.) there is a silver print on the envelope which is: "<month in roman
numbers e.g 'XI' (=11=november)> - year of last century, e.g. 69, so:
XI-69 is production dating from november 1969.
with sovtek, you sometimes see this:
http://www.ebastian.de/tubeshop/6l6_ref.jpg
there's only the year stated on the envelope.
hope this helps a bit...