Barry
20-10-2010, 21:02
Gentlemen
A collegue of mine has ‘saved’ the unwanted replacement valve stock at his works from going into the skip. Within this valve stock there are many double triode designs, specifically:
ECC81 (= 12AT7)
ECC82 (= 12AU7)
ECC83 (= 12AX7).
Some of these are by noted and well respected manufacturers such as Mullard and Brimar. Many, however, are designated by their CV number (CV = 'Components and Valves'). CV designation is a HMG coding dating back to WW2, and is still used for components supplied to the Armed Forces. The difficulty lies with the fact that for a given valve design, there might be several CV designations; depending on slight differences in performance, rating, build quality and extent of quality control. For example for the ECC83, there are the following CV equivalents: CV4004, CV4017, CV492, CV8156 and CV8312.
I have asked for a complete inventory of this valve stock, so that I can determine exactly what there is and how much of it might be of interest to members of AoS.
When asked how much was being asked for the valves, my collegue laconically, an somewhat unhelpfully, replied “half price”. I have done a bit of a search of the prices charged by Watford Valves, Langarex, CVC, Marshall and several other vendors (a miniumum of ten) to determine the average commercial price, and then halved that amount. The results are
ECC81 £6.00
ECC82 £8.00
ECC83 £7.50.
I think these are reasonable prices - remember that the valves are NOS (New Old Stock) by British manufacturers (and possibly Philips, the long-time owners of Mullard), no east european and certainly no Chinese products. Quality ‘schmutter’ as would benefit equipment used by the armed forces.
I should add that we cannot match valves as pairs - the company AVO valve tester was sold long ago!
At the moment I’m simply assessing interest. When I know what valves there are, I will reply more fully. So if anyone is interested, please let me know, either here in the open forum or by PM.
Regards
A collegue of mine has ‘saved’ the unwanted replacement valve stock at his works from going into the skip. Within this valve stock there are many double triode designs, specifically:
ECC81 (= 12AT7)
ECC82 (= 12AU7)
ECC83 (= 12AX7).
Some of these are by noted and well respected manufacturers such as Mullard and Brimar. Many, however, are designated by their CV number (CV = 'Components and Valves'). CV designation is a HMG coding dating back to WW2, and is still used for components supplied to the Armed Forces. The difficulty lies with the fact that for a given valve design, there might be several CV designations; depending on slight differences in performance, rating, build quality and extent of quality control. For example for the ECC83, there are the following CV equivalents: CV4004, CV4017, CV492, CV8156 and CV8312.
I have asked for a complete inventory of this valve stock, so that I can determine exactly what there is and how much of it might be of interest to members of AoS.
When asked how much was being asked for the valves, my collegue laconically, an somewhat unhelpfully, replied “half price”. I have done a bit of a search of the prices charged by Watford Valves, Langarex, CVC, Marshall and several other vendors (a miniumum of ten) to determine the average commercial price, and then halved that amount. The results are
ECC81 £6.00
ECC82 £8.00
ECC83 £7.50.
I think these are reasonable prices - remember that the valves are NOS (New Old Stock) by British manufacturers (and possibly Philips, the long-time owners of Mullard), no east european and certainly no Chinese products. Quality ‘schmutter’ as would benefit equipment used by the armed forces.
I should add that we cannot match valves as pairs - the company AVO valve tester was sold long ago!
At the moment I’m simply assessing interest. When I know what valves there are, I will reply more fully. So if anyone is interested, please let me know, either here in the open forum or by PM.
Regards