Thomas Mayer/Elrog tubes - especially 211s and Molybdenum Plate 211s

[VinylSavor]

Sure Thomas. In respect of the 211 tubes, did you do any A/B comparisons w the usual suspects of older existing tubes? UE, Amperex, and my GE tubes?

Yes, but what kind of result would you expect from me as I sell these tubes?
I have been an avid user of strictly only NOS tubes before I got into the tube business myself.
I use Elrog tubes in the amps I make and sell whenever there is an Elrog variant available.

All I can say is that this 70 year old set of tubes is still performing flawlessly in my Nats after several yrs w me, obviously in addition to it's previous six decades.

I am sure they have not been used all those 70 years. Tubes have basically an unlimited shelf life (most of them at least)

After my horrendous Elrog 845 experience, the hassle in adjusting my Nats for new tubes, and the inability to confidently predict I'll prefer them to my GEs, or like them at all, and their luxury pricing, you can see why I haven't signed the cheque yet.

Sure I understand and yes tubes, especially Elrog tubes are luxury items so you will not see any pressure from me to buy them

Thomas

 

[Zero000]

The Acme Psvane thread leaves me w some reservations on their reliability.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Thomas, you've been running yr tubes longer than anyone, being as you are the daddy LOL.

How many hours are on the longest run in tubes now, and what is your reasonable estimate on life expectancy on them before serious consideration needs to be given to replace them?

 

[spiritofmusic]

Absolutely Justin.

You know those moments in Roadrunner where Wily Coyote runs off a mountaintop, stops in mid air, looks down, frowns, and plummets to the ground to become a pancake?

That's yr typical Acme customer w failed tubes.

 

[VinylSavor]

Hi!

This question keeps coming up but there is no easy answer to this as it depends a lot on how the tubes are operated:
Plate dissipation, filament voltage, turn on cycles, stress at turn on, exposure to mechanical stress (excessive uncareful tube rolling) and so on.
There is one reported case of an old style Elrog 211 with 30.000+ hours on them.

I would say on average expect 4-5000 hrs. Can be well beyond 10000 but also well below 1000 if improperly used.

However the warranty is 1 year. So if I give any lifetime this is useless for the customer because what counts is the warranty.
Stay away from expensive tubes if lifetime is a major worry. I should not say this as a tube manufacturer but I am just honest about this.

If you are happy with your tubes stop thinking about this and keep using them. If you want to try new things and the cost is not hurting, go for some of the new exotic tubes, be it Elrog, AN or wjatever you fancy


BR

Thomas

 

[Audiocrack]

I am sure Marc and I would be very interested to hear what you think if you did so.

Hello Justin,

I contacted Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note UK last week (I have mailed with him in the past quite regularly, most of the time about our favourite classical composers and music as well as about the (very) special vinyl recordings we both adore; he is an intriguing personality and a great music lover. Notwithstanding the fact that I have been using Kondo Japan electronics for many years now he has been nothing but a gentleman to me). He assured me that the PsVane Moly 4242E valves have been very reliable so far while the number of these tubes that have been sold since their introduction exceeded my expectations. He speaks very highly about the (musical) qualities of these Molys; if I understood you correctly that also applies to the reviewer of these PsVane Molys that reached out to you.

 

[Zero000]

Hello Justin,

I contacted Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note UK last week (I have mailed with him in the past quite regularly, most of the time about our favourite classical composers and music as well as about the (very) special vinyl recordings we both adore; he is an intriguing personality and a great music lover. Notwithstanding the fact that I have been using Kondo Japan electronics for many years now he has been nothing but a gentleman to me). He assured me that the PsVane Moly 4242E valves have been very reliable so far while the number of these tubes that have been sold since their introduction exceeded my expectations. He speaks very highly about the (musical) qualities of these Molys; if I understood you correctly that also applies to the reviewer of these PsVane Molys that reached out to you.

That's very true Kevin does think they are great. Mind you he knows Peter very well and Peter seems to have let him enjoy an awful lot of AN amps. Like a dealer feeding a bad habit LOL. I have heard a lot of them at Kevin's and the best by a long shot is the Tomei.

As such he can't be regarded as unbiased. But then who isn't to some extent.

I am still curious about Munich where GEs were used. If the Molys are so fab why not use them there? Ask Peter love to know the answer...