Tubes, tubes, and more tubes

We received the tubes for the new Silhouette Monoblocks. We are installing New Old Stock, known throughout the industry as "NOS" tubes. These tubes will normally sell for well over $200 apiece if purchased separately. I found a guy in Indiana that had 16 TungSol power tubes from the 1950s and 18 from the 60s in his barn.



It was a huge investment, but nobody, and I do mean NOBODY, no other amplifier manufacturer has ever sold their amplifiers with 100% NOS tubes in them. The first ten amplifiers will each have between $1,500 and $3,000 NOS tubes apiece in them, plus the normal sets that they can purchase from New Sensor made now. The ones that are manufactured these days are copies of the old ones, but they are nowhere near the same. The older steel and tungsten from the Korean and WWII era was just better quality. One box arrived about an hour ago!

I am EXCITED about this. We have invested in and stockpiled in tubes for our new amplifiers. Purchasing that many tubes at one time from three different suppliers was such an incredible find and will more than likely never be duplicated again.

We made a conscious decision to go ahead with installing the best tubes in the world in our first ten amps - no matter the cost. It is something that we might never again be able to do. These tubes are almost gone from the world, hence their prices.

Dave