Valves

If they glow, this is the place to be
Andy831
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#1 Valves

Post by Andy831 »

I realised today that I hoard valves.

Lots of valves that I don't know if I will ever use really.

Is this an illness or something, why would I hoard valves that I don't think I will ever use? I mean I am not even technically able to build amps being a complete novice.

I went from one small box, to a big box, to now two big boxes. Another 24 due to arrive in the next day or so.

I just covet them, they are beautiful peices of "art" to me.

Am I going "nuts" or admit it, are we all the same?


Andy
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al newall
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#2

Post by al newall »

Andy.

Hoarding valves is normal practice. Though you'll probably get bombarded with requests, now you've advertised the fact.

While you may not feel able to build anything just yet. It's only a matter of time.
I'm not the only person here who knew nothing about tubes a few years ago.
Still don't know much, but i can read a diagram and successfully build an amp now.
Eventually the mumbo jumbo will sink in and you'll pluck up the nerve to do something. Then you won't look back. Enjoy.
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Paul Barker
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#3

Post by Paul Barker »

It is fairly normal behaviour.

I have now picked up a trend for many valve prices to fall. Take the 6l6 as a good example, these are fetching vertually nothing not worth the bother of listing. I actually paid more for mine as equipment pulls up to 8 years ago than they would sell for today.

45's haven't gone up at all in all that time.

Such as ecc81's and 2's have levelled out they had a spurt maybe 5 years ago but are today at that same price. Even 83's which went up massively from £5 to £40 in just a few years are levelling back down again.

So my advice is don't go mad, eventually you will settle on what you want to use for your lifetime, make sure you have that in the bag and then find some other form of gambling, this way is too dodgy.

I believe that it is the cheapening of the entire valve audio market by the Chinease OEM's which has caused the plumet in prices across the components within the market.

Don't buy anything as a collector in this market which seems a bargain to you because it is the same as a valve which sells for £60 but has different heater and you can get ot for £5. In 10 years it will be worth £5 and the £60 valve will be worth £120.

ONLY BACK THE VALVES WHICH ARE IN DEMAND.

For your self, convert your equipment to take the strange heaters buy sufficent valves to last until you need a hearing aid.
Mullardman
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#4

Post by Mullardman »

I suspect you're missing Andy's point. It's not about investment or profit. It's about the fact that valves are inherently attractive, in a 'form follows function' sort of a way.
I feel the same way about them. (Although I hasten to point out that there are limits. I don't have 'bedroom fantasies' about them, and I wouldn't want a 300B to have my love child) But they can be very pretty.
If I'm honest, they also appeal to a sort of retro, schoolboy view of technology, when life was simpler, and Dan Dare ruled the spacelanes.

The other dimension is that what appears as an inanimate object, has the potential to really illuminate someone's intellectual life, througth the reproduction of music. That's a powerful thought.

Nurse!..... The screens!!!!!!!!!!

Mull
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#5

Post by Andy831 »

Spot on Mull....... you captured my thoughts and put them into words most eloquently
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Paul Barker
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#6

Post by Paul Barker »

You two are barking mad.

As soon as a valve is dead I have no further attraction to it. My attraction is based on:

1: it's ability to make good sounds,

2: its investment value.

Both of these die with it.
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Nick
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#7

Post by Nick »

I cant let Paul clame madness in others, without using it as an excuse to post the historical (now) picture of Paul changing the LP

Image

Or the amp we were using that day

Image

What was a real worry going back to those pictures, was just how small and sensible that 212 seems now. Help!!!
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#8

Post by Cressy Snr »

Guys
I would say Paul is dead right about collecting valves. Most are not worth all that much and the ones that are have mostly been shipped off to Japan or are in Steve's and Paul's collections :D.

I like 6AS7s/6080s. These are as cheap as chips and I don't expect that to change in my lifetime as zillions of them were made.

I like the 5687 computer valve too, especially for driving regulator triodes. Again they are as cheap as chips. Who said 6EM7? again another good 'un

I tend to go for oddball valves, not because they are better than the proper ones (far from it) but because they are literally all I can afford. They have their foibles and take a fair bit of work to get a good sound out of them but they are perfectly capable of making excellent music.

Hey Paul,

That 212 amp looks a neat build for a breadboard. Did you care more about aesthetics in those days? :D

Steve.
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Dave the bass
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#9

Post by Dave the bass »

Nick wrote:
Image
I'm sure that Monet hanging on the wall is worth more than all those funny old Valves put together.

DTB
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Paul Barker
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#10

Post by Paul Barker »

Well yes it qualifies me to call people obsessed about valves mad I think don't you?
Andy831
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#11

Post by Andy831 »

:lol:
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andrew Ivimey
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#12

Post by andrew Ivimey »

As I have the original painting on my kitchen wall, Paul's has to be a fake!
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Dave the bass
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#13

Post by Dave the bass »

andrew Ivimey wrote:As I have the original painting on my kitchen wall, Paul's has to be a fake!
Wish we had a nice painting like that.

All we've got is the original of some mopey lookin' bird in black.

Image

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
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andrew Ivimey
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#14

Post by andrew Ivimey »

I told the butler to take that one to the jumble sale!
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Paul Barker
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#15

Post by Paul Barker »

That's my great great aunt Moaning Lisa she belongame givva her backa
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