Thread: Voshkod tubes

Are any of you familiar with Voshkod tubes. What's your opinion on the quality?

For the rebuild of my ARC 610t amps I purchased all the new tubes I would need 6 months ago. Now that we.....Phil... is at the end of the rebuild the 4 Sovtek 6N1P tubes I purchased are bad right out of the box.

The only brand of 6N1P that I can locate is the Voshkod. The are much less expensive which concerns me, though unless I find someone that has other brands I will have no choice.

Any help is appreciated

Originally Posted by brad225

Are any of you familiar with Voshkod tubes. What's your opinion on the quality?

For the rebuild of my ARC 610t amps I purchased all the new tubes I would need 6 months ago. Now that we.....Phil... is at the end of the rebuild the 4 Sovtek 6N1P tubes I purchased are bad right out of the box.

The only brand of 6N1P that I can locate is the Voshkod. The are much less expensive which concerns me, though unless I find someone that has other brands I will have no choice.

Any help is appreciated

So I am not a tube expert, but some sites claim the 6bq7a is the "western equivalent" (whatever that means) to the 6n1p.

Would these work?

TubeDepot.com | 6BQ7A / 6BZ7

Hi Brad,

You might call Audio Research and ask if the 6BK7B, 6BQ7A or 6BZ7 tube types would work as a replacement/substitute for the 6N1P.

All three are pretty common tubes that can generally be found as NOS.

Originally Posted by brad225

Are any of you familiar with Voshkod tubes. What's your opinion on the quality?

For the rebuild of my ARC 610t amps I purchased all the new tubes I would need 6 months ago. Now that we.....Phil... is at the end of the rebuild the 4 Sovtek 6N1P tubes I purchased are bad right out of the box.

The only brand of 6N1P that I can locate is the Voshkod. The are much less expensive which concerns me, though unless I find someone that has other brands I will have no choice.

Any help is appreciated

Voshod is not the brand of 6n1p as in the old USSR there were just different facilities/factories where different tubes were produced - like mentioned Voshod, Novosibirsk, Ulyanov, etc.
Anyhow 6n1p are fantastic tubes and just try to get 6n1p-EV ones as those are ruggedized military versions usually with OTK sign on them. No need to search for any substitutes honestly.
For example: 6N1P-EV / ECC88 / 6DJ8 TESTED Tubes Voskhod ROCKET / OTK / 1975-79! Lot of 4 | eBay

Thanks I will check with ARC tomorrow.

I looked at that add on eBay earlier Golum, and put a bookmark in my tube folder. Thank You.

Call ARC and they said they had no 6n1p tubes. Had them on order for 6 months and no idea when they might have them. They said not to use anything but 6n1p.

I have ordered Voshkod tubes from 3 different people hopefully they will work.

Trying to find someone in the Tampa area with a good quality tube tester but so far no luck. I called a couple of shops that repair vintage and they don't test tubes. It would seem like that would be a necessary part of working on vintage equipment. Apparently not.

Originally Posted by brad225

Call ARC and they said they had no 6n1p tubes. Had them on order for 6 months and no idea when they might have them. They said not to use anything but 6n1p.

I have ordered Voshkod tubes from 3 different people hopefully they will work.

Trying to find someone in the Tampa area with a good quality tube tester but so far no luck. I called a couple of shops that repair vintage and they don't test tubes. It would seem like that would be a necessary part of working on vintage equipment. Apparently not.

Any brand who’s design is all Russian tubes has got to be in a world of trouble from a supply standpoint.


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You got that right mike.

Originally Posted by brad225

You got that right mike.

I've been searching for you and came across these. Have you seen these supposedly matched pairs?: Amazon.com

Thanks Michael,
I have 3 types of tubes coming. The standard, EB and EV-EB. Hopefully one of them will work properly.

Either this afternoon or tomorrow I will get to listen to the rebuilt amps.

The link to that seller look good. They offer a 3 year warranty on tubes. That is quite unheard of.

Brad

Originally Posted by brad225

Thanks Michael,
I have 3 types of tubes coming. The standard, EB and EV-EB. Hopefully one of them will work properly.

Either this afternoon or tomorrow I will get to listen to the rebuilt amps.

The link to that seller look good. They offer a 3 year warranty on tubes. That is quite unheard of.

Brad

Good luck with them and let us know how it goes. Hopefully you'll be set with what you ordered.

Originally Posted by Mike

Any brand who’s design is all Russian tubes has got to be in a world of trouble from a supply standpoint.


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How much longer until the same story is true for tubes from China?

Originally Posted by mep

How much longer until the same story is true for tubes from China?

China isn’t at war.


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Originally Posted by Mike

China isn’t at war.


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Yet.

Brad, hopefully your incoming 'stash' will be what you're looking for ! If not and FWIW Jim McShane is IMO one of the best 'tube guys' I've ever dealt with, while he is starting to slow down and retire he might be still worth a look.......

Jim McShane Home Page

I purchased my last set of 6550 tubes from Jim a few years ago. I checked and he didn't have any 6n1p tubes on his site. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I'm now happy to say that I have working 6n1p tubes in the amps.

After bringing all of the good and bad tubes back home arranging them to go to a vintage repair company on Tuesday that tests tubes.
I was surprised to make a discovery with the tubes that were in the amps.

The 6n1p tubes that we removed from the amps were installed by Audio Research when they went back to get a clean bill of health by Echo Audio in 2015 prior to my purchasing them. The amps were shipped directly to me from ARC.

When I looked closely with a magnifying glass to make out what was left of the original cables all 4 had rockets on them signifying they came from the Voshkod factory. Only one of the of the tubes was marked Sovtek. Two of the tubes had identical markings from the Voshkod factory and the fourth had the rocket and markings from another company the labeled Voshkod tubes with their name. The latter 3 tubes have the exact markings as some of the tubes I ordered from different sellers.

The 4 6n1p Sovtek tubes I purchased from VivaTubes that were no good had the rocket and the same markings as the current tubes I have been receiving. I was surprised Sovtek used their tubes for many years or someone is putting Sovtek on old tubes.
The only difference is they charged almost 3 times as much. That's my fault for not knowing enough about the tubes currently available.

I explained the rebuild of the amps and missing the warranty time and I accept I did. I even offered to pay to ship them back and if they found they were in perfect condition I would be happy with some credit toward other tubes or I would pay to ship them back to me and I would attempt to sell them. They suggested it my EE fault and had no interest in anything I offered.
I understand being in business I was self employed for all but 2 years of my working life but there is a thing called customer service.

Just interesting ARC has no tubes that fit their specs but there are obviously 1000's of 6n1p EV-EB tubes that they have used. I realize they have high standards but surprised none are their standards. We will see in time.

The EV-EB tubes are said by other ARC owners to have the factory rating of 5000 hours in their amps.

Oh well that is part of owning older tube equipment. At least my wife hasn't taken away my credit and debit cards.

Can't wait to get them home. Hopefully by the weeks end.

Originally Posted by brad225

I'm now happy to say that I have working 6n1p tubes in the amps.

After bringing all of the good and bad tubes back home arranging them to go to a vintage repair company on Tuesday that tests tubes.
I was surprised to make a discovery with the tubes that were in the amps.

The 6n1p tubes that we removed from the amps were installed by Audio Research when they went back to get a clean bill of health by Echo Audio in 2015 prior to my purchasing them. The amps were shipped directly to me from ARC.

When I looked closely with a magnifying glass to make out what was left of the original cables all 4 had rockets on them signifying they came from the Voshkod factory. Only one of the of the tubes was marked Sovtek. Two of the tubes had identical markings from the Voshkod factory and the fourth had the rocket and markings from another company the labeled Voshkod tubes with their name. The latter 3 tubes have the exact markings as some of the tubes I ordered from different sellers.

The 4 6n1p Sovtek tubes I purchased from VivaTubes that were no good had the rocket and the same markings as the current tubes I have been receiving. I was surprised Sovtek used their tubes for many years or someone is putting Sovtek on old tubes.
The only difference is they charged almost 3 times as much. That's my fault for not knowing enough about the tubes currently available.

I explained the rebuild of the amps and missing the warranty time and I accept I did. I even offered to pay to ship them back and if they found they were in perfect condition I would be happy with some credit toward other tubes or I would pay to ship them back to me and I would attempt to sell them. They suggested it my EE fault and had no interest in anything I offered.
I understand being in business I was self employed for all but 2 years of my working life but there is a thing called customer service.

Just interesting ARC has no tubes that fit their specs but there are obviously 1000's of 6n1p EV-EB tubes that they have used. I realize they have high standards but surprised none are their standards. We will see in time.

The EV-EB tubes are said by other ARC owners to have the factory rating of 5000 hours in their amps.

Oh well that is part of owning older tube equipment. At least my wife hasn't taken away my credit and debit cards.

Can't wait to get them home. Hopefully by the weeks end.

I think if the war goes on much longer keeping the supply of Russian tubes scarce, you're going to see ARC loosening the definition of their tube "standards" otherwise they won't be able to mfg or fix gear which = going out of business.