Svetlana factory seconds

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Has anyone else tried these?

SED 6L6GC Factory Second


I did.... I won't ever again.
I'm running about a 1 out of 3 pairs failure rate.
Miss-matched... micro-phonics, rattles and some just took off and red plated in a matter of an hour idling at no more then 18 watts each.

[Old Tele man]

...reminds me of a saying I heard in USNavy, "...sloppy seconds..."

...of course, we're referring to electrical characteristics here, not something else.

[J M Fahey]

Well, *now* you know what made them "seconds".
In fact calling them seconds is stretching the truth *too* much.
And the phrase [QUOTE][renowned for their great sound quality and durability and these SED "factory seconds" are no different/QUOTE] *should* get them in trouble with the FTC.
1 in 10 or 20 would be my definition of "seconds", not 1 in 3 !!!!!
Really not worth the price asked and a very seedy attitude.

[soundmasterg]

I tried these and had a lot of problems too. I had to return tubes back 5 times to get something useable, and I'm not sure how far I can trust them. I'll probably use them in amps while testing or something like that because I don't think I can count on them for anything critical. I won't buy them again, or anything else from that vendor.

Greg

[imaradiostar]

I purchased some El34's and KT88's- had about a 50% failure rate but I was pushing them. I tested quite a few used Chinese and Sovtek tubes at the same time and the same conditions and only the SED seconds failed. Seems like it might not be a coincidence.

jamie

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I don't think it is a coincidence... I think we all got hosed with junk defective tubes that are much much worse then just mismatched seconds that didn't quite meet some OEM amp makers specs... they're mostly a $1 crap tube and that is it!
I'll be lucky if I can use half of them even with them idling in the 12-15 watt range... plus, they many of them are very noisy mechanically.

[J M Fahey]

I think it might be resumed as this: some guys got the *real* factory seconds somehow, they returned the 10% to 20% defective ones , Tube Depot is now offering these twice rejected with a *guaranteed* 50% failure rate.

[stokes]

Thats a bigger failure rate than I've had in over 20 years of culling old stock tubes I've picked up at flea markets and ebay.Amazing an outfit like the Tube Depot would pull such a scam.Did you try to get some kind of refund?

[Diablo]

I jumped and bought 6 of the EL34s and 6 of the 6L6s just to try the SED tubes. I only tried a single pair of the EL34s and they matched almost perfectly for bias and ran fine for an hour. I swapped 'em out of the amp and kept them for spares. I hope I didn't buy a bunch of duds.

[micri5446]

wow, that's shady ... they should be ashamed.

but, like my brother says, the only way to get rich is to be a scumbag...

peace.........mike