Tube Lab #73 - Foton 6H8C (6SN7GTB equivalent)
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- A Mini Review of the Foton and a look at other great sounding bottom getters.
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I love your review sheets and your detailed comments about tube construction! Thank you very much!!!
This channel should have a lot more subscribers.
Excellent
Just got a pair of these 6H8C for a pair of old 6SN7s, one of which that's gone microphonic. Was a bit worried when they arrived, because I ordered 6SN7s, but these strange 6H8Cs turned up… However, when I popped them in my monobloc, they sounded really good, especially for the price… Cheap as Chips there were!… and yes, I'm in the UK.
The Soviet 6H8C or in English 6N8S is a direct equivalent to the 6sn7 and depending on the year made it can be a GT GTA or GTB. Most of what we see today are the later GTB types. And yes they're cheap as chips. If you want an even better sounding tube, look for the early Foton bottom foil getter, made from the 1950's to about 1968. IMO the later types work well in circuit but sonically they're meh.
@@tubelab194 I think I must've lucked-out. The ones I received appear to be the bottom plate getters. The lower waste gettering on the glass, look just like the ones you've shown in the upload… 😎
Man I didn’t think of tube supply through Ukraine. Crap.
Sleeper tube, great find Jim, very impressive for the money.
Not only Ukraine, which was my main source of vintage Soviet era tubes, but Russia as well, no flights in or out of Russia means no shipments of nothing heading West. I'm fine with that, Putin's gone all Hitler, it's up to the Russian establishment to remove him before he does any more damage.
I find tubes wonderful not just for the sound but for the history as well. NOS tubes are quite literally artifacts from a time when East and West were in constant conflict. It is depressing that that conflict is rearing it’s ugly maw once again. But it is beautiful that humanity’s common love of music transcends boarders and conflict. I pray Ukraine will remain free to hear any music they want how they want. Thank you for reading that man’s letter. 🇺🇦. If I had an amp that used those tubes I get some in a second.
How about RCA 6sn7?
The RCA 6sn7gtb can be a lovely tube, with a really nice soundstage - BUT it had a long production run and many many variations and not all of them sounded very good. Generally I prefer the older types much more than the newer versions. The older tubes had standard height plastic bases and silver writing.
@@tubelab194 thank you so much 🙏
Hi there, is it normal for these nos foton tubes to have a big black zone on one side? Or does it mean they're used?
I think you're referring to the waste gettering. In most tubes the getter and gettering (silver coating) is on the top of the glass dome, but in some cases it's at the base of the glass (waste chrome) or even mid glass. In each case the tube performs identically, as the only purpose of the gettering is to absorb stray molecules and help maintain the vacuum. So yes this is normal for this tube and perfectly ok.
I am still searching for "that one" tube.. I tried mostly new ones.. RCA 6SN7, Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB, EH6SN7 Gold, some others.. but all of them had such a similiar sound compared to each other and most sound so close to solid state that it's almost not noticeable. I have no idea where to get NOS tubes reliably in EU with good measurements but I would really love to try at least one good NOS tube with a good reputation. Do you happen to know a nice EU seller?
Also 2022 is crazy, wishing all affected people the best. Humanity doesn't like war, it makes no sense at all :/
If you are hearing tubes as a very similar sonic signature and they sound very much like solid state, that's an indication that something isn't right in your system. Remember everything matters, I did an Episode way back where I talk about drawing a schematic of your system, everything including cables to aid in identifying the weak link(s). We do ship Worldwide for a flat $20. or Free if your order is over $150.
@@tubelab194 Huh that's weird.. all I own is a FiiO K5 pro which I use as a DAC (which measures very neutral) and the Xduoo TA-26 which is supposed to give plenty of tube sound while still retaining clarity (according to many reviews).. in my experience the bass changed a little and everything became a tiny bit softer, but the difference to solid state is not too big. I know that this is a budget amp but I pair it with 300 ohm Sennheiser HD650, which are supposed to really profit from OTL amps. All the tubes I tried are well received in this unit or go to tubes for the Darkvoice, which is very similiar.
I have some vintage tubes on the way to check what they are about (6SN8 Foton tubes from 1960), someone recommended these to me.
Other stuff about my system is fairly standard. A quite good but non snake oil grade RCA cable connected to my DAC and the signal comes out of my PC via optical cable (my USB ports created too much unwanted noise), I listen to flac files and in exclusive mode, my dac automatically detects whatever bitrate and Hz a song has and automatically adapts to whatever frequency.