> You want the 5963 or 5965 as replacement for the 12AU7, or the 5964 as a > replacement for the 6J6. These digital tubes used to be cheap, until some > seller to audiophiles got the bright idea to claim that they have that warm > tube sound.
That always made me laugh. To make them, RCA removed the silicon additives from the cathode metal, which had been put there to make activation faster (=cheaper). The computer tubes took longer to activate, so they cost more. However, since linearity, gain balance, and the like were non-issues, these tubes would have a much greater allowable spread of characteristics (increasing yield and somewhat counterbalancing the increased cost of longer cathode activation). This does mean, of course, that they don't make particularly good audio tubes, except that the sort of audiophiles that keep their heaters lit 24/7 and only do listening occasionally, will avoid cathode interface issues. - John -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
