Siemens 6922/E88CC tubes - any experience with them?

Hello all,

Picked up a pair of these on the local used market for a good price and just got them yesterday. So far, love them! Sound very open, and ridiculously detailed in my system.

Just curious if anyone else has these and your impressions?

 

Are they current production or NOS? They look good, they even have golden pins.

 

They are NOS. They sound phenomenal!

 

Keep them out of Audible Illusions...



sean

 

X seams on top = a Philips family tube - that's a good start. Normally Philips family tubes match the box they came in, but occasionally other Philips plant tubes were purchased to fill orders (the Herleen Holland plant and Great Britain Mullard plant often came rebranded for another Philips plant are the usual suspects in this case). There should be an etched datecode most likely near the bottom edge of the glass with 2 rows of numbers/letters/symbols. If you can post what the datecode is or put up a picture of it, I can let you know which plant, year and month of production your tubes were from. Can you get a picture looking up into the top part of the glass? The shape of the getter also let's you know approximate eras of construction.

 

"Can you get a picture looking up into the top part of the glass?"

I,ll do this abit later, thanks
A-frame getter

 

I can def see this Steve. I don't think Siemens are supposed to be the "warmest" of tubes....however I don't feel they are bright past my tastes and system

 

A-frame getter is later production (the box is a later design as well). Not many 6922s with A-frame getters were made - they typically show up in 6DJ8s from Philips' Holland plants and to a lesser extent Mullard. I have some from the Ei plant as well. Tube lore says the A-Frame getter supports could be more likely to be less susceptible to microphonics - let your ears decide.

As for earlier production Siemens 6922s, I have several large O getter versions from the early 60s and they sound fine. If you find early/lightning bolt logo RCA 6922s you'll in all probability find Siemens made tubes - RCA steered clear of producing 6DJ8 family tubes, which is odd considering the government used plenty of gear that had 6DJ8/6922/7308s under the hood.

 

I think Nuvistors might have been RCAs roll of the dice to keep tube production going, rather than develop tooling to go all out with frame grid construction tube types late in the 50s - more money as developers for them if the Nuvistor had succeeded at holding off transistor production, but it hit the market too late to really become widely used.

 

RCA also sponsored the 6FW8 frame grid tube. But this was in the late 50's. History of the 6DJ8 and 6FW8 - 6SN7GT - Tubes Asylum