UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

Dave1000 · 18th Feb 2019, 7:30 pm

You seem to be confusing guitar amp's and audio amp's (although I suppose both are audio amp's, but you know what I mean).

I have never seen anyone suggest any valve swapping in audio amp's outside of what equipment manufacturers or websites such as the Valve Museum suggest, or very close equivalents with different pin-outs (which require adapters or rewiring).

So far as colours go, go back enough decades and the Mullard white and yellow printing presumably provided some fun because they were variously believed to show different spec' ranges, different tolerances etc. etc. etc.. Nowadays I think that the concensus was that yellow print were sold largely to OEMs, everyone else got white, but that was not infallible. I have never heard anything mentioned about significance of print colour except for Raytheon valves (IIRC) - older valves (including long plates) were printed in yellow, but the company changed to red printing towards the end of their making valves.

As for what is "best" - just like beauty, beer, and even music, would you believe, that really is down to the beholder/drinker/listener, even ignoring amp design to amp design differences.

All of this micky-taking is 20(+) years too late for anyone serious about hifi, rather than valve-collecting sheep.

18th Feb 2019, 7:30 pm	#77
Dave1000 Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Feb 2019 Location: East Midlands, UK. Posts: 36	Re: "Audio" Valves You seem to be confusing guitar amp's and audio amp's (although I suppose both are audio amp's, but you know what I mean). I have never seen anyone suggest any valve swapping in audio amp's outside of what equipment manufacturers or websites such as the Valve Museum suggest, or very close equivalents with different pin-outs (which require adapters or rewiring). So far as colours go, go back enough decades and the Mullard white and yellow printing presumably provided some fun because they were variously believed to show different spec' ranges, different tolerances etc. etc. etc.. Nowadays I think that the concensus was that yellow print were sold largely to OEMs, everyone else got white, but that was not infallible. I have never heard anything mentioned about significance of print colour except for Raytheon valves (IIRC) - older valves (including long plates) were printed in yellow, but the company changed to red printing towards the end of their making valves. As for what is "best" - just like beauty, beer, and even music, would you believe, that really is down to the beholder/drinker/listener, even ignoring amp design to amp design differences. All of this micky-taking is 20(+) years too late for anyone serious about hifi, rather than valve-collecting sheep.