I have learned SO MUCH from you and Mr. Carlson's Lab that wasn't covered in all the electronics courses in school ! Nitty-gritty nuts 'n' bolts stuff not in the textbooks. Thanks ever so.!

You are the absolute KING of debunking snake oil . At 70 years of age and into high end audio since I was a kid, via my father, this snake oil never stops. EVERYTHING you said is correct. My other pet peeve is cables and interconnects. Been there, done that.

To prove your point Mark . The other week I went to see a band. Their guitar player had one of the best guitar sounds I have ever heard. Talking to him in the break, he said his 1970's Vox AC 30 amp had not had a valve change for about three years, (they do two gigs a week) , he didn't know what his connecting cable was as someone gave it to him . He buys the cheapest strings he can when he changes them every 3 months , and the only effect he used was a 1960's Watkins Copycat tape echo. (He knew it was 60's as his father gave it to him when he went to a Strymon tape echo). Hi guitar was a Fender Squire Stratocaster with no modifications at all. He spent his time getting to a high standard instead of trawling the internet for a load of snake oil fixes.

The best video to date, lots of laughs. Keep up the good work

OK I play guitar, and have swapped out a lot of NOS tubes in the V1 position Of my tube amps, in order to change the tone. Absolutely makes a huge difference, but I am so glad to hear that perhaps somebody is making good tubes in the present, that will not continue to cost me an arm and a leg. So glad that there are people who are continuing to analyze tube technology. I subscribed!

The tube damper worked in my guitar amp. The problem was most likely that the metal retainer was vibrating against the glass and causing unwanted noise. They were like a dollar for 2 I think.

Hi Mark, you hit the nail on the head! All snake oil. I've been an electronics technician since I was 13 and I've seen it all. Many newly manufactured tubes are as good if not better than NOS. There's a lot of factors involved with the actual applications that tubes are used in. I repair a lot of vintage electronics...not only hi-fi, but guitar amplifiers, both vintage and new. Newly manufactured tubes, from my experience over the years don't hold up as well in guitar amps. The tubes are put under severe stress as opposed to hi-fi applications. There are many tubes made today that aren't reliable for guitar amp use. Guitar amps made nowadays are biased very hot and as we both know shortens the life of a tube; mainly output tubes. As you said, vibration is one of the issues along with them being over-driven to the point where the plates buckle, or the glass envelope melts. I've had many EL-34's that had holes in the side, or top of the glass. I do agree with you that the Sovtek 12AX7's are a good pick. Also, there are times where I get a shipment of theses tubes where out of 2 dozen, I MIGHT get 3 that are quiet. When you can play a tune on the tops of the tubes, you're in trouble. From my experience, I've had very good luck with JAN tubes in a preamp section. They were made well and are made to rigid standards. I could go on for hours, but to keep it short, newly manufactured tubes are a dice roll when it comes to instrument amplifiers. I had a very bad run of new Tung-Sol tubes where I've sent back dozens at a time either because of them being duds right out of the box, or failed shortly after installing them. Excellent video, keep on keeping it real. PS: I will not do repairs for audiophools...oops, I mean philes :) You end up getting married to them, and they are never satisfied. it's not worth the problems, no matter how wealthy they may be.

I built a Heathkit integrated amp in 1962. That was my last involvement with tubes until recently when I got a new amp that uses tubes in the pre-amp. I tend to be a doubter in much of the audiophile stuff. This was an excellent explanation of these ideas.

Your advise to optimize the end points of the system is spot on.

That tube damper ad even as you read it was so hypnotic I almost thought " I need those!" I think I'm going to invest time playing instead of money.

At last an expert, I was one of those people who was always reading conflicting views on NOS tubes, in glad I now feel I don't have to upgrade and spend a fortune, thank for this video keep up the good.work!.

Wish I'd found this year's ago, absolutely spot on and entertaining as well. The most sense I've heard on these various subjects ever. Much enjoyed, cheers :-)

I’m still chuckling, you’re a brave man burning down myths using snake oil as a accelerator.

Refreshingly frank and to the point, with added humour. I like listening to music on my tube amps, and my s/s amps. Its all good, even without cryo treated 8mm2 jumbo cables and green glass tubes. Burn in??, that's 20 or 40 hours of lost listening, or whatever, from that new set of tubes. Love your POV on the snake oil.

I've been into high end audio and TUBE gear for 50 years. (I'm now 70 years of age), built my share of tube amps and have a CLOSET full of tubes. This is the BEST video on debunking all the bullshit that comes from all these tube stores. They are SO full of crap that it never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for a great video to BUST these BS artists. They've been ripping people off for decades with their BS.

A+. I am not an audiophile, but have been repairing, designing, building guitar amps since the 70's. What you say translates over to that world 100% according to my opinion and what I have personally experienced. Entertaining!

Mark. This is the BEST video on KZfaq. Love it brother. Awesome!!! Thanks for this. Seriously! Ron

So I like to hear and I agree with all the topics. And one aspect (in my personal perspective) seems to me to be much more important than all that have been mentioned: Perhaps one of the components of great impact in the quality of the transmission of the audio through vacuum tubes is the output transformer, something that is often overlooked by many of those dedicated to tube amplification. A good output transformer continues to make a big difference, at least to my ears. Keep it on, Blueglow!

Thanks for the your views, always interesting. I must say being a guitarist I do use the valve/tube rings in my guitar Amps which I find helps reduces the vibration going through the tubes/valves which I believe/think/hope! Make some last a little bit longer!?!?, maybe. For me it's a cheap and easy way of hopefully prolonging the life of something which is used in fairly hostile environments (loud volumes, being moved all the time, etc)

Excellent. As an old radio tech who plays guitar through tubes it warms my heart to hear you call BS on these blatant sheep milking devices. I have spent hours debating audiophiles. Very frustrating. Great video. Cheers.

Please don't feel bashed and smashed over this one, Been fixing tube amps and everything else for 40 years and 100% agree with you and your comments , like your video very much , makes a lot of sense. Keep up the good work lol Bill

Re: tube dampers... Everything you say about them not improving audio quality is true. However, here's an experience I had. I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV combo amp. At a point, I kept hearing a high, glassy buzz from the back of the amp. The sound coming from the speaker was excellent, but there as a mechanical vibration emanating from the tube. I opened up the amp, and with a gloved hand, gripped the tubes as they were vibrating, causing a cessation of the noise. Popped on some dampers, and, boom... Back in business. That said, like you mention, guitar combos are VERY rough on tubes, and, if possible, is recommend to any guitarist that they choose a head/cab setup instead.

Heck yeah! These cryo treated tubes I'm sellin' are genuine! I stuck 'em in my freezer last week, and they're still in there, just next to my vodka, right now! You'll be cry-oing tears of joy when you here 'em!

I built amps for Bob Carver, and he used Russian KT88s and KT120s, and they worked just fine. As far as the sound of tubes, it's mostly the circuit that makes the difference in sound, and the output transformers are critical to the sound of an amplifier. And dampers --- the only damper that actually works in my mind in a good EF86 audio pentode with a heavy disk at the top of the plate, such as in an Amperex.

I am an electronics engineer of some standing with Bsc Hons and in the early days all the qualifications I could take and you are correct. Freeze a metal, its resistance goes lower, let it warm up and it returns to where it was, so no change apart from empty pockets! Speaker leads is another myth. OFC and the like means nothing to the sound produced, that is down to your speakers and pickup. Snake oil is everywhere.

Here in Brazil we call it E.T.C ....... El Toro Crapo !!! Great vid..... lol need more like this on Sunday.......

Love your videos, I completely agree with your prognosis on audiophile snake oil. Speakers are the most important by far for sound, I've had Carver Amazing Loudspeakers, ESS AMT1A's, Acoustat 1+1's, Magneplaners and now use a homebuilt pair of towers with the ESS Air Motions Transformers reproducing the highs, extremely efficient and sound wonderful. Oh and by the way, still own all the speakers I've ever had except the Carver Amazing's.

Mark, I have been playing live rock music as a weekend warrior for the last 50 years. I fix my own gear, have built six amps and fix stuff for my friends. Nothing sounds better than a re-tubed properly biased guitar amp. However!!!!! After one set your ears can't tell the diiference between preamp tubes. Once the drummer starts slapping the snare drum, kiss your ear sensitivity good by. LOL

Love all your videos. Thanks

Awesome awesome advice!!! Thanks for all the help. Funny topic. Loved it!!

I agree with most of what you say other than the dampers.....they do in fact reduce vibrations the same way a harmonic balancer does on an engine, or touching something that vibrates stops or dampens the vibration.....it even works in a similar fashion to double glazed windows.........anything that can reduce to transfer of vibration/sound to the tube elements will have a positive effect.......not all vibration is started inside the tube itself or its mechanical connection to another vibrating part....if you can tap the tube and hear it in the output and then hold the tube with your hand and tap it again and its reduced you can reduce microphonics with some for of damping.......the more weight an object has also has a damping effect......the only this I will say though, is you have to have the problem for any damping to work to any degree.

Agree with you 100%. On the tube wear in, you are correct that people are looking more for tube wear out. The problem is that tubes wear slowly so the sound changes and they don’t notice it. Then, when the tube is down to 20%, that is the sound they are used to when the amp fails. Putting in a new set of tubes sounds different, so they think it is bad. Another myth is that a tube with a mesh plate sounds more open, as if the physical holes in the plate make sounds, and open sound comes from physical holes.

Interesting video! I found most interesting the part about the "Tube Dampers" because although I agree with you about the devices being total BS, there is a bit of sense in doing something about the vibration. But as I began to rapidly think of how to keep the vibrations of a nearby speaker from affecting the tubes, no matter how I configured a "fix" to keep the vibration from the tube, the net result was to over heat the tube! It might be a bit of a hassle, but the best bet would be to keep the amp and the speakers separate from each other!

Refreshing and candid. Thanks, Mark.

Could not agree more. I also find the wooden speaker cable supports that keep the cables off the floor a little snake oily. I also heard somebody say they had to be broken in…..they’re blocks of wood for crying out loud. Hilarious.

I totally agree with you. Only thing probably worth investing in to improve tube amp aside from better tubes which is obvious is ensuring they get proper cooling to ensure they ideal operating state. It won't make them sound better but certainly will extend their life expectations. I personally like hybrid tube pre amp designs (when done properly). Certainly the best way to improve the system is investigate in analogue listening device. Best regards.

Thank goodness another soul who can see through all the bs out there!

Thank you for creating & sharing such a nice & informative presentation for us.

1/2023: I absolutely love it! I totally agree with your logic. And your honesty. Count me Subscribed. Thank You and Happy New Year

About 15 years ago I went to the Vacuum Tube Valley trade show. I amazed myself. Out of a building full of vacuum tube amplifiers I picked out by hearing alone the one solid state amplifier at the show. It reminded me why I bought my first solid state amplifier in 1968 and never looked back. There's something about the sound of tube amplifiers I don't like. I have a very fine turntable and cartridge but I prefer the sound of CDs. To each his own.

Good Job on this one! So True! Keep putting out the videos. I Love Them! Well Done Mark!

I made some tube dampers out of hummingbird taints and it made “ tiny little” differences in mine.

The engineers at AUDIO RESEARCH state plainly that newly made tubes experience shifts in their operating parameters for some period of time after being manufactured. They put all their tubes through a 48 hour burn-in cycle so that their characteristics stabilize. I would tend to trust what the engineers at Audio Research say about that. They SHOULD be subject matter experts, and they are.

Mark I am not sure if I 100% agree with you on these points. At first I have to admit that I am no technician in any shape or form, I know as much about tubes as a car salesman about cars, so I might be in the land of Dunning&Kruger here but I worked for a hi-fi manufacturer back in the 90s and we were the distributors of a Chinese tube manufacturer in Germany. However we had a nice tube pre-amp with ecc82 ecc83 and my demo amp was equipped with proper Telefunken tubes, not the real old ones with a swastika printed on but reasonably old like 50s 60s that kind of thing. My amp at home was equipped with the Chinese counter fits and it worked ok too. But what I have noticed is that at home I had to change my tubes relatively often coz after like half a year or so they always started to make trouble and started to degrade noticeably. One of our technicians/developers was a real hi-fi nerd with Onken speakers and multi cell horns and that kind of thing and he always refused to build a 300b coz he said he is not willing to spend 1200 for a proper GE tube. For his own amps he only used these old Wehrmacht tubes. So I guess there must be something to it. Why do people say that Shindo stuff sounds so awesome? (And they are right it really does) It is not only because it looks cool and is exotic and expensive, I think that one secret is exactly using the right old components. It does not mean that all new stuff is crap, I am not claiming something like this at all, but for sure it sounds different.

About tube dampers: I saw once tubes with silicon rings, which stuck in some perforated metal tubes. The sockets where not on a pcb board but connected with shileded cabels. The device was some kind of radio equipment from a soviet military craft. Those perforated metal tubes where hung up with some kind of spring system. The owner told me, it was for shock absorbtion as I asked him, because the construction looked funny. Maybe that's how they came to the idea.

Current production tubes like EH, Tung-Sol are favorites for me in my guitar amplifiers. They sound good, and they have good durability. Tube Burn-In is more about removing/revealing problematic tubes that will have early mortality.

With the talk of vibration to tubes-I can remember in some mic preamps-TT preamps the preamp chassis was mounted on rubber-and spring suspension mounts from the main chassis-this worked well-and NO snake oil-specifically Ampex Re/PB tubed amplifiers in their 350 series tape machines.

I totally agree with everything you said. This wisdom transfers over to other things, like cars. I enjoyed, this. Thanks

On a serious side, I totally agree with all you said. An excellent video my friend, Phil.

You are absolutely right. Speakers should be the best you can afford, as they are really the only thing that provides the sound information. My system is a Technics SU-V505 connected up to Kef 104/2 and the sound detail that comes from this setup is the best I have ever heard. And I use standard RCA cables and speaker cable.

Great honest video that I totally agree with! Love your channel and all your content!

Thank you so much! Now I'm even more certain about these things. Great you're able to talk about these things without letting your emotions get in the way xD which may be difficult, but people who especially aren't good at physics or electronics will appreciate it.

Thanks for all the info. Paul

My first amp build was a Fender 5c3 Deluxe guitar amp that I modified to accept glass 6SL7'S instead of the stock metal 6SC7'S. I cheaped out by installing used 6SL7'S. They were microphonic even when the amp was idling . Installing AutoZone O-rings, did (mostly) cure the microphony issues BUT swapping out those tired old preamp tubes for brand new Sovtec reissues performed 1000% better with no dappers required. So yes, sometimes you can polish a turd but it's almost always better to flush the toilet.

Without repeatable instrumentation for sampling and testing performance. I'm skeptical about burn in performance differences unless you can show that using test signals or specific tracks that there is a actual difference. I'd assume that 20 hour burn ins that change the sound are either you getting used to the new sound or not hearing the old sound for 20 hours of time gives you time to adjust and forget what the old sound was like. The cryo stuff I'd have to see someone with lab equipment and sampling do a before and after on a few dozen -> 100 samples, to help weed out cheating and good batch performance.

Great great info! I'm not so sure on tube dampers in a guitar combo amp. If I hold a tube that audibly rattles when I shake it by the plug end, but then hold it by the glass and it doesnt ring anymore, or is more quiet I'd say they are doing something. Now I dont think its neccesarily through the audio signal. There's also a difference between tube rattle and microphonic tubes. I've had tubes that rattle that sound fine through the audio signal, but rattle loud enough to be picked up by the mic on the speaker at the gig. That's where attempts to quiet that rattle are warranted, especially when tubes can begin to rattle in a guitar combo amp in relatively short time.

Those rubber tube damps could be a cure for premature ejaculation 👀 JJ are supposed to be made to vintage standards.

Right on! There are good and bad tubes, new and old. In preamps, especially it helps to select the best ones. Low microphonic designs had extra supports. Yes regarding speakers and cartridges. They are electromechanical transducers, with all kinds of issues. From an old tube engineer and audio fan; son of a transducer engineer.

I have a pair of NAT se2se 211 PSE monos and the tall envelopes of the 211s ring like crazy at around 800hz. I can have the amps on, no music playing, sing an 800hz tone and the speakers play the tone. That's remedied by some Pearl tube coolers/dampers. No more ringing/feedback and the midrange became much clearer. I can't say that I notice any difference in other, smaller tubes but there is likely a small improvement if my experience with the larger tubes translates.

I totally agree with you, I worked in Hi-Fi retail for years and although the products 'in the middle' was Transistor based and it always amazed me the amount of BS there is even in the Enthusiast publications. The critical factor is the delivery and that is upfront and speakers. The amplifiers I would suggest are of say 70% good to perfection and most speakers vary widely from 20% through at a push to 50%. Over the years I have built my own speakers and always modify the drivers. Even after running in period there is way too much resistance in the suspension and I cut away most of the spider and remove the dust cover. The enclosures I have made are 1/4 wavelength twin parallel pipes in a transmission folded horn and resonance damping and speaker chassis fixings are by magnet support while the chassis surround is held against the cabinet by foam. I glue a ceramic piezo onto the apex of the cone on light supports and rewire the pigtail wires and balance with Bi-Polar caps and resistors and a few millihenries air core inducers. This method enables the speaker to more accurately follow the signal path and the harmonics and imagery is second to none and single point source providing the amplifier is well balanced and also has good harmonic figures and good imagery and leaning toward a softer than harsh output. Now am retired am thinking about Tube amplifiers and so far my first bit of kit is a Capacitor discharge wand using a 10 Watt ceramic 470 Ohm resistor. Great videos and Seasonal Greetings from London UK

Great video. Agree on Sovtek 12AX7, use them and the standard Sovtek EL84 in my guitar amp. Have tried many others... Not NOS admittedly... But always go back to the Sovteks. They sound great.

I agree with pretty much everything you’ve listed. As for damper rings. My experience is, their help is minimal. Personally, I think the metal covers. Like found on fender amps, actually help the most. Largely because it’s somewhat a barrier to the sounds coming off the back of the speaker.

I like the old blue glass Arcturus tubes. The 27 is my favorite. I also like the 833-A for the final SET stage even if it is tricky to get the 10 Volt 10 Amp heater filtered 4.5 Farads in the final filter and using it with Magnepan speakers.

Another great video. Agree with you 100% on all the bs out there. I am far from an audiophile as I know I can't hear worth a darn any more and that comes to everyone the older they get. The start and end points are so important as you say in having a good sounding system. I love reading other forums where they have page after page of how their 400$ electrical input cable improves their system so much and they can tell when it is plugged in vice just a "common" ac cord and everyone there is like "Oh wow I need one" and "You are so right, I could tell immediately!" BS!!

From Leo Thanks for your video. There is lots of snake oil in any hobby. I am always up to learn. I have been repairing guitar amps since 1969, of course mostly tubes. The vast majority of tube amps wrap the preamp and phase tubes in metal shielding. the heat build up must not hurt. Some have slotted metal cages around the power tubes where heat is definitely pretty high. A pair of KT88 or a quad of EL34/6L6 output tubes make serious heat. Higher power guitar amps that hang the tubes upside down in the same cabinet with multiple speakers are poison to tubes for microphonics. The same basic design where the tubes are upright in a separate cabinet is way better on tube reliability. I'll bet I have 30 12ax7, 12at7, 12bh7 or 12au7 tube that test great on the tester , but rattle like a tin can full of broken glass in the amplifier. They are fine for many stationary amplifiers, but are junk in a guitar amp. The upside down tubes are even worse where they mount the tube sockets directly to a circuit board, so now the vibration hurts the tubes and the heat burns the circuit board, but that is another story. It is like the designers willfully take the reliability out. I have ham radios from the mid 1950's that still have some of the original tubes, including the high voltage rectifiers.

As a reference: as of April 4th 2022, ONE Sovtek AX7LPS is going for $85.00! Bad times for tube enthusiasts.

Great rant & amen brother. I’ve never spent more than @$10-12 per tube except to buy a GZ34 rectifier....sooo I’ve not tried a 12ax7xps yet. I do love the JJ ec803s. Usually, in most spots, I prefer a GOOD ol’ 12at7 over a 12ax7.....smooths out the sound......saves $.

“Love to buy bull.” That says it all. Great video and you made us laugh👍👍

That was great. I have so many audiophile people preaching to me that I need expensive 1960 NOS tubes. I’m really happy with just recently made tubes. I have tinnitus so I have changed some that sound bright to me. The new Mullard works good for me at 34 bucks.

I built my first amp using carefully selected NOS parts and expected to see Elvis appear in my living room when finished, but sadly he did not arrive. However, in all fairness it was probably my fault because I failed to use vintage solder and do a proper cryo-freeze of the power switch.

Many preamp tubes have metal covers/sleeves to prevent RF interference so how does is the heat dissipation argument valid?

Great video , keep them coming!

This is great! Very real, down to earth thoughts! I use copper wire and plain electrolytic caps and foil caps in my builds. Nothing fancy, no oil caps, definitely no "bumble bee" caps! The sound is fine too my ear. I do favor glass tubes purely for looks, but find metal tubes pick up less interference.

In guitar amp those rubber thingies can stop the glass resonating. If the glass is resonating and shaking the internals, then off course it will come through speakers. It's guite annoying when you're done with tracking guitars and only then you realize there's this extra "zing". Only had this issue with EL34 though.

You are correct IMO; input feed and output are the factors on sound quality. Learned that at an early age... I still love the sound of the my Magneplanar MG-III's. Six foot ribbon tweeters can't be beat.

You should talk about getters. These are used once to set off the explosive inside the tube to get a better vacuum, to use up the residual air. I do not know how many times sellers on eBay talk about the shape, size or location of the getter enhances the sound.Another fraud: plate color, either grey or black, it makes no difference. Another one: tubes that have a dark coloring on the glass-no effect. There are probably more. If i were unscrupulous, I would go into the voodoo power cord, power conditioning, interconnecting wires and speaker wire business. I would start with speaker wires made out of automotive battery jump start cables converted to $100.00 per foot speaker wires. Great vid.

Hi ! Mark, excellent video ! Well I have a new phono stage that utilizes 4 Sovtek LPS (two per channel) that I found fantastic on the low end and midrange range but the upper notes are always there but in the background, lacking presence, even though I noticed the cymbals sound very authentic but way in the back and I found myself always tweaking the treble to increase the top end, I would appreciate any advice on similar tubes with better extended highs. Thank you.

Totally agree with you on this. I've owned Valve amps for years with no problem.

Just what I needed to hear . Don't love paying $100 for a preamp tube.

Awesome video ! You should make a snake oil series , can't wait to read the comments. Merry Christmas.

I recently tried a number of tubes in my RIAA amp. First. You are right. The one I enjoyed most was a new Genalex Gold Lion ECC83.Second. Although most of the tubes did not change, the set of GE JAN 12AX7WA sounded horrible the first 8-10 hours or so, then it suddenly just woke up and everything was there. Sonically (as in balanced registers, defined bass and so on) it became the best tube, but it crushed the soundstage compared to the Genalex for some reason. I actually have recorded sound-bits from before and after the change if anyone is interested. The difference is not subtle. At the same time, that very same type GE JAN 12AX7WA (another unused one) put into the preamp stage on my integrated Hybrid amp, it just immediately was there. My theory is that the hybrid amp has more current potential while the RIAA stage is weaker and needed a little time to fully engage the tube. I don't know enough of the real workings in a tube, so my guess is a really uneducated one. I would really want an educated explanation (guess) on why this happened? The tubes tested was the original Tung-Sol 12AX7, RCA (Heinz and Kaufman) 5751 WA (1957), Genalex Gold Lion ECC83 (2016), GE JAN 12AX7WA (1975). Only the GE tube had any hint of burn in difference, well maybe very short on the RCA but I am not certain about that.

This is the best debunk vid out there! Keep up the great work that you do. I look forward every Monday to your SOAPBOX SUNDAYS! This was just hilarious! Been telling the same thing to my so called audio auffitionatoes" sp not sure" this for years! Love it

The best one I've heard is Monster Cable saying they had the best Speaker Cable because they used a special multi-sized stranded cable made from 3 different gauges of OFC (Oxygen Free Copper twisted together into one centre core. The Bass Frequencies would travel down the large gauge strands, the Midrange Frequencies would travel down the medium gauge strands and the Treble Frequencies would travel down the fine gauge strands of wire. Keep in mind these 3 different gauges of bare wire (OFC Copper) were twisted together into 1 multi-stranded centre core. I knew nothing about all this stuff back then and busted out laughing because even I knew that was Bullshit. Oh, wait a minute maybe they were using "Smart Frequencies" that has AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the AI Frequencies were smart enough to know which wire they are supposed to use. God Bless You and Your Family!! Jimmy in NC....

Thanks for that video! It made me laugh! As far a cryo tubes are concerned, you wouldn't wanna drop one after lifting it out of the liquid nitrogen! My speaker cable is very good quality! If it can handle 240 volts at 50hz, im in Australia by the way, I'm not gonna spend 3000 bucks on so called audiophile cable that's only a few metres long just for stereo! Love you channel. I tune in all the time! Andrew from OZ!

I appreciate your honesty

Regarding tube "break-in," tube makers recommend that tubes be used for some period of time (i.e. X hours) before their performance is judged. Personally, I have heard this phenomenon many times. It is not subtle. Sometimes the changes are "punctuated." Using familiar recordings is the best way to discern these changes. (I am a nerd who takes notes on what I hear. Testing must be repeated at different times for confirmation). You are absolutely correct that other parts, especially capacitors, can take a long time to perform their best, so I am careful to do any evaluations only in amps that are "broken in." BTW, interconnect cables are capacitors. In my experience, the best ones typically have the lowest capacitance per meter and require break in. Exotic dielectric materials, such as nitrogen foamed polyethelene are being used to keep capacitance down. Air is the best dielectric. Personally, I use pure soft silver wire in loose cotton webbing - vitually no break in. While I appreciate sound skepticism, I don't understand your thinking about tube dampers. Have you never heard a wine glass ring? Do you believe that airborne vibrations picked up by the glass envelopes of tubes and the equipment in which they sit are not transmitted through the tube base to the internal elements? Sure the effect is small. Depending on the tube and the resolution of the system, it can be audible. Dampers, depending on their design, material, and mass, will reduce the moment of any such vibrations. Remember, too, that the transformers of vacuum tube gear also produce vibrations through the amp. Dampers add mass to the tubes. The effect of dampers naturally is greater on the small signal tubes. One does not need to be in an 18 wheeler to hear a difference on a sufficiently revealing system. If you want to prove to yourself that adding mass reduces unwanted vibrations put some significant weights atop your speakers. You may also be aware that tube amp manufacturers, some of them, use tube dampers, particularly in guitar amps.

I find it funny that folks will spend thousands on getting a tube amp, to get that tube sound, then spend more to get rid of the tube sound. People do strange things .. Cheers, - Eddy

That was a beautiful rant! All true. Just saw a monoblock for $125k too!

hey bro great video!!! I agree totally with everything you said. I do have a quik question for you thou, being a tube guy. I play bass thru an ampeg svt with 6550 power tubes and was thinking about trying out KT88's in it, do you think there would be any benefits to this? answer if you can, no problem if you don't.

Totally agree... almost all possible sound improvement is in the speakers and the ROOM

Thanks for sharing the info.

Love this video. You mentioned the Sovtek 12ax7. Can you say that the other Sovtek tubes are equal if not better?

I installed a damper on the power tube because my guitar amp has Tube Rattle, and it did become a lot smaller after installation

Great videos. Keep up the great work and service to your fellow man. Thank you.. I think you are correct about no benefits of cryo treating tubes.. However, as the former owner of an aerospace company, cryo treatment does produce a change to the properties of metals that is maintained even after retuning to room temp.. Much the same way as heat treating produces changes even after the material returns to room temp.. Sometimes these treatments are used for stress relieving materials, often in aircraft parts..This process is used often at GE Aviation. Will it make a tube sound better? Doubt it... Could it damage you tubes, from glass and metal having different contraction levels at extreme cold, temps like Minus 300F? I don't know, but why subject a multi material assembly to those temps? Not me.. I let my tubes stay within the temps they were designed to operate within.

LOL. Great video. Your comment regarding speakers is something I learned many years ago from my father: buy the best speakers you can afford, then work your way back through the system. Here's a parting thought: How about we talk about cryogenically treated interconnect cables and speaker wire that costs $300, $500, $700 per cable????? That ought to generate some feedback! LOL.

Great video Mark. Glad you got all that off your chest!

What about shield cans? I used a tube damper once on a tube that would oscillate at very high volume and it did cut down a little.

Tube dampers CAN have a positive effect in a guitar combo amp where the vibrations are tremendous. I've experienced it. In a hifi system you are probably correct about their limited usefulness.

Recently I discovered there is a speaker cable that has arrows on it. It's sold by a couple of 'high end' audio companies. They say the cable is 'directional' and for correct sound reproduction you must use their cable with their equipment, and you must connect it with the arrows pointing towards the speakers. Yes, it's just ordinary copper inside the plastic, and the price per foot is just ridiculous.

Agreed on cryo tubes, I've tried it. And the tubes in question sounded exactly the same way as that brand of tubes sound in general. My experiment were not silly expensive, as I did the test with a rather inexpensive model. But that did prove the fact for me. And that were enough for me - nice to see you confirm this. :) And yes, a super expensive power cable do nothing whatsoever. neither do fancy interconnects. In my case, I try to get better source material - I have managed to give a few hints to artists, who actually have released HD versions of their music. I say wow and simply wow when listening to 48k versions of my fav tracks - that's my 5 cents on where to spend money on - superior recording of the music itself! :)