I am the owner of two custom made class A monoblock amplifiers that
operate in triode. The outputs are a pair of 6550 tubes for each unit.
These need to be replaced and I seek your advice.

1. I find that NOS tubes can be bought for at least $75 a pop and
that's more than I want to spend.

2. Please let me know which among the current production tubes can be
recommended. Like everybody else I seek sound quality and reliability.

3. Can you recommend dependable dealers for this transaction?

Isaacson

I like the real Russian Svetlana, nowadays sold under the SED brand (with
a
winged C logo), but a number of other contemporary 6550's are also
excellent.


I also like the "winged C" sold under SED name

avoid current tube named Svetlana, this is a cheap cruddy Sovtek Reflektor
made tube, and is being marketed under the wonderful Svetlana name due to
this jerk who screwed Svetlana out of their corporate name. An
embarrassment to our love of music and all that is good.

I cannot think of "a number of other contemporary 6550's are also
excellent"

I would get the SED's now, and watch ebay for some nice NOS GEC (Genelex)
KT-88's if the best sound quality is important to you. The NOS Western
Electric 350B may well be the ultimate tube for this application,.but they
are whole lot MORE than $75 each!

I would recommend purchasing from Ned at Triode.

Mr. Le Gal already answered better than I could. Just in order to save some
$ in shipping expenses You can try asking for quotations to these guys:
http://www.die-wuestens.de/eindex.htm (Germany)
http://www.tubeprofi.com/ (Austria, JJ distributor, KT88s are a drop-in
replacement for 6550s)

Ciao

Fabio


"François Yves Le Gal" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
On 3 Jul 2005 10:29:22 -0700, "Isaacson" wrote:

2. Please let me know which among the current production tubes can be
recommended. Like everybody else I seek sound quality and reliability.

I like the real Russian Svetlana, nowadays sold under the SED brand (with
a
winged C logo), but a number of other contemporary 6550's are also
excellent.

3. Can you recommend dependable dealers for this transaction?

As you're seemingly based in Israel, I can't recommend a local dealer,
being
totally unfamiliar with your local market. If you fancy going mail order,
there are numerous quality etailers offering low prices, excellent service
and with international shipping experience.

Check for Instance Ned Carlson's Triode Electronics
http://store.triodestore.com/index.html
or Jim McShane
http://pages.prodigy.net/jimmcshane/tubes.htm

Both are frequent contributors here. I've purchased stuff from Ned a
number
of times and have always been very satisfied.

I tried the Winged C Svetlana brand 6550C and Tung Sol reissue 6550 on
several tube amplifiers I owned, and the result is excellent!