Tubes · 28. juni 2020
Last week I bought a very clean and good looking about 65 years old tube tester: the Hickok I-177B with the adapter set MX-949 A/U. The military tube tester I-177B is designed around 1950 as successor of the WW2 model. The I-177B tube tester is made for the American Forces, and also used in NATO countries. This unit was used by the Dutch Army. Because of the special climate conditions in Korea a great number of tube testers had some special treatment. MFP, stands for Moisture and Fungi Proof....
Tubes · 25. november 2018
Last summer I bought a old 1960's tube amplifier: the 'famous' Lafayette Bocama 224B from a nice guy living in Zwolle. When I was studying, the Bocama, in triode, became my first HIFI amplifier combined with a small 2-way system. It was the start of a long career in buying HIFI. Anayway, when I was visiting the seller in Zwolle, I checked the Bocama for being NOS. It was! I have taken some pictures for a more detailed look. With an amplifier from early 1960's you know you have to replace all...
Classical records · 15. november 2018
A short story on Decca labels. Did you know there is a label called ED5 ?
Tubes · 27. augustus 2018
Yesterday I had some brothers from Schiedam visiting me with their Van de Leur 002 tube preamplifiers. Van de Leur is a smal Dutch company building tube amplifiers and class D power amplifiers with some assistence of Menno van der Veen, known for his famous toroidal transformers. The guys joined me for a check on the pre amp. It made noise when turning up the volume. Also 'the trumpets' sounded a little bit raw when played. Surprisingly I found out they had Electro Harmonix tubes inside, 12AT7...
Tubes · 03. augustus 2018
Last week a customer of me bought a tube amplifier on Marktplaats.nl (a local auction site in Th Netherlands). But it didn't work properly.
Tubes · 15. juli 2018
Yesterday I received a batch of tubes from France. It was a box with 5963 tubes, a special quality ECC82 or 12AU7 or 5814. These tubes 'made in USA' NOS (stated by seller), were used in the 1960's as computerparts, longlife 10.000 hours usually made for Hewlett Packard. These tubes are fairly unknown to the broader tube community as a very good replacement of types as ECC82 or 12AU7. However, I started testing the tubes - as I Always do when receiving new tubes- on my Amplitrex AT1000. I used...
Tubes · 28. juni 2018
Last week I was doing some studying on what to buy next for my shop which I want to offer and sell to my customers. I found a brand I didn't know: CIFTÉ or as some write it: CIFTE. I was curious what this French brand was all about! I found through Google some references for 'French military', 'radio equipment', 'Mazda', '12AU7' but not a lot more. Real European NOS tubes is becoming very scarse indeed! From what I read it became clear, CIFTÉ was a very good brand, and the 12AU7 NOS are very...
