I don't doubt that millions more people are still using razor blades. My point is, that as I understand it, just like razor blades, the factories in Russia are still producing vacuum tubes in the same quantities that they were a year ago. Neither of these products are produced for the United States market. Both are imported by their respective dealers. So why can we get one product and not another?
Because people aren't hoarding razor blades, yet? Edit; Actually, I just realized that I am. They were on sale, so I stocked up!
Maybe the Russian owned factories are. What makes you think that the New Sensor factory is operating as normal? jeff
DE shavers are every bit the hoarders of razor blades as audio people hoard tubes. I might venture to say, even more so. Both groups have a tendency to stock up when on sale. It is very likely that either or both of these products might be in limited supply in the future and prices will be much higher. I stock up on blades like I used to stock up on tubes. Like NOS tubes, there is a big market for collectors and users of vintage razor blades. Both are important products. Tubes are likely to survive the big electromagnetic pulse. Razor blades will come in handy in the post apocalypse sticks and stones era.
My understanding is that Russian Factories are operating as they normally were. I would say the the New Sensor factory probably qualifies as a Russian factory? Do you have any knowledge to share that they are not?
No, but I'm very cutious as to what's going on. Shouldn't be that difficult to find out, but maybe I'm be naive. jeff
I don't think you are being naive. But dealings in other countries like Russia and China are on a completely different level then in the US. Gillette is a big company. The have about half of the world's market in razor blades. Gillette is owned by Proctor and Gamble, which is a huge company. But even as large as P&G is, they don't outright own or control their factories in Russia. Whatever the exact deal is, nobody knows much of anything. In Russia and China, you are always a partner with the government in one way or another. I sincerely doubt that New Sensor is actually controlled by an independent company. I think it is more likely to be controlled by the Russian government. Even dealing with razor blades, sources I know only have bits and pieces of information. Very little is known or disclosed outside of the inner circles.
One would think the owner(s) of New Sensor Corporation/Electro-Harmonix would build a tube factory in say the Czech Republic, or maybe Poland. Or?? Mike Matthews would probably first have to see if his most knowledgeable employees would be willing to move to a new country. I see no future for the Russian people as long as the present Russian leader is in power. (My last sentence is not meant to be political. Just a fact... )
I can't imagine that Mr Matthews would be allowed to move any of the tube manufacturing equipment, or personnel, out of the country.
The TubeStore seems to have been out of the Tung-sol power tubes (6550/KT120) almost since the shortage began. I keep checking out of curiosity (those are the tubes I use for my CJ monoblocks) and they've never shown up. I figured if they can't get a hold of them...yeah...still a shortage.
I just hope this prompts others to start production again, like Western Electric here. Truthfully though, I. Not sure how much of a market there is to start up factories. My sons generation will not be interested in tube gear. It looks too educational! Lol. Wireless and portable is becoming better and better. I’d put my money on that becoming more lucrative in the future.
My CAT JL5 is designed for KT120's. I suppose CAT could reconfigure the amp to work with KT88's but that is undesirable when compared to KT120's. From the website: The JL5 was designed to bring the famous CAT quality into a smaller more convenient chassis and make tube biasing much easier. The JL5 even uses the same driver tube technology as THE STATEMENT amplifier. This driver is specifically optimized for the high current KT120 tube, but also yields superior results with the venerable 6550/KT88 tube.
Yeah, with the current prices of Russian KT120's it may be beneficial for WE to begin production. More likely, a Chinese tube manufacturer will start to produce KT120's like they do 6550's and KT88's. WE can't compete with Chinese companies, which is why we don't see them making more tube types.
Rogue Cronus Magnum III can use a multitude of existing tubes besides the KT120. KT88, 6550, KT90 – based to 35mA + KT77 or EL34 tubes biased to 30mA.
Yeah when WE said they were going to start making other tubes and asked the public what they should consider, I submitted that they start working on a KT120 because many amps are using them and there's only one manufacturer.
I may come as a surprise to you that hundreds of millions of people shave with DE blades. Many of those have never shaved with a cartridge razor. Just like there is a tube audio community, there very much exists a dedicated DE shaving community (which may be a lot larger than the tube audio community). Just the way there are audio manufacturers building modern tube amps, there are manufactures that design and build modern DE razors. Just like our tube community members feel that tubes provide a better listening experience over solid state, those in the DE shaving community feel that DE razors provide a superior shaving experience over shaving with a cartridge razor. With tube amplifiers, we can taylor our listening experiences by using different tubes, with a DE razor, you are free to alter your shave by using different blades.
I couldn't comment about newer designs, but several years back, I had a conversation with Rogue about switching out tubes in the same family. Just as @Tullman has mentioned, tube amplifiers are often optimized to operate with a specific tube. The transformers are wound for that tube. Plate voltages are optimized for a particular tube. At the time, my discussion was about using EL34 power tubes in their monoblock's which were configured to operate using KT88's. Rouge did say that the EL34's could be used but that would not be the recommended tube to be used.
I wouldn't get your hopes up that Western Electric is going to be able to rescue us if the Russian factories stop or drop production. And I wouldn't even expect them to be able to keep up and replace the production of power tubes like the KT120 if Russia stops or slows down production. Western Electric in Rossville doesn't have the space or capacity to do that. Western Electric has a five floor office building in Rossville where it looks like they occupy 1 or 2 floors. Real estate listing for the building: Commercial Exchange Google maps location: Google Maps Their new factory space is about a quarter mile away and is a converted Food Lion grocery store. Not a big factory space to be producing tubes and amps and other things they're doing along with warehouse space. It's just a converted mid-size grocery store. Google maps link: Google Maps Google Earth link: Google Earth Look at the space they're using and the location and adjust your expectations accordingly.
My post contained a cut and paste directly from an email I received from Rogue in response to this very question (they misspelled bias). When I do finally run out of KT120 tubes I’ll start on others on the list.
WE was inquiring about increasing tube production so they must have room or at least a plan for expansion. Remember, WE has sent out 6ns7 tubes for trial and from what I have read those tubes are very good. They never put those tubes int0 production. I don’t think WE can complete with China to make it profitable. This is not good. Between Russia and China we have two unstable trading partners. That global economic plan ain’t what its cracked up to be.
No, you can not compete with country's producing inferior products. You can compete by producing a more expensive, quality product.
