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Components and Circuits For discussions about component types, alternatives and availability, circuit configurations and modifications etc. Discussions here should be of a general nature and not about specific sets.

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Old 12th Dec 2018, 1:03 am   #21
Al (astral highway)
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Default Re: Old valves worth collecting ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
Some amazing engineering went into valves.

The valve you hold in your hand today is the culmination of an immense amount of research. It's interesting that the plant with the biggest turnover, Mullard, Blackburn was at the forefront of reliability and low cost manufacture. They simply had the turnover to make good statistical analyses and fine-tuned their technologies and processes over an immense number of parts.

There are firms these days offering boutique valves for audio aficionados, but it seems they lack the knowledge and machinery that made the mass manufactured valves so consistent and reliable.
David, this is a wonderful validation of why a period valve is so incredible. Over and over again, I've found them outlasting semiconductors that only came into being 40 or so years later. In fact, I've only very rarely found a valve other than an output pentode that failed, and even then, it was for the reason we commonly discuss on this forum when helping beginners.

They original, real deals, are far more rugged and resilient than commonly imagined, and as you suggest, I doubt that any recent start-up can ever replicate the qualities of the mass manufactured ones that many of us revere.
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Old 12th Dec 2018, 3:31 pm   #22
Studio263
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Default Re: Old valves worth collecting ?

They look like a couple of old 'pulls' to me, value zero unless tested.

The EF86 is in the wrong box, possibly because the valve from that box is now in the thing that EF86 you have was taken out of because it didn't work properly. Those rarely wear out but they do get hummy and noisy.

The EC92 has some of its pins bent together, that's a thing that some engineers do to show that a valve has something wrong with it. Bending the pins in stops it being idly tried again in something else, causing confusion in a later repair.
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