Is it even worth looking for NOS 211?

[Mfdave]

Hey ya’ll,

I’ve been interested in acquiring NOS 211 tubes (I need 4 of them for my airtight 3211) for over a year now, but I haven’t found many strong leads besides GE 211, which I may end up getting.

My question is: is it even possible to buy a quad of amperex or rca these days? I’ve scoured the internet and called shops and found some private sellers but nobody that I’ve encountered has a good source.

Has a youngish guy like me missed the golden era?

 

[spiritofmusic]

I check my increasing bald patch every day and wonder the same thing.
It really does look like the GEs are the ones most likely to be found, at least as matched pairs, matched quads less likely so.
Amperex seem to be MIA/unobtanium.
I've had a strong personal recommendation for Telefunken RS237s, but finding these in pairs is a crapshoot, quads forget about it.
One brass base on eBay for over £4k!!!
I'm also wary about ordering from half way around the world re fragility en route.
Nope, it looks like next time I buy a quad of 211s for my Nat monos it'll be odds on new production, either AN 242 Molys or Mayer Elrog equivalents.
And I'll keep bemoaning the golden age of NOS 211s and my previous full head of hair.

 

[Mfdave]

I check my increasing bald patch every day and wonder the same thing.
It really does look like the GEs are the ones most likely to be found, at least as matched pairs, matched quads less likely so.
Amperex seem to be MIA/unobtanium.
I've had a strong personal recommendation for Telefunken RS237s, but finding these in pairs is a crapshoot, quads forget about it.
One brass base on eBay for over £4k!!!
I'm also wary about ordering from half way around the world re fragility en route.
Nope, it looks like next time I buy a quad of 211s for my Nat monos it'll be odds on new production, either AN 242 Molys or Mayer Elrog equivalents.
And I'll keep bemoaning the golden age of NOS 211s and my previous full head of hair.

Well hey, at least you got to experience these beauties when they existed!

I think I will order the AN to try them out. I was somewhat displeased that my amp came with entry level 211 tubes from psvane. Though they were supposedly tightly matched and tested.

 

[spiritofmusic]

I'm not sure even the priciest amps would come with anything other than functional stock new production tubes.
Luckily my Nats were GE 211s as standard.
Right now, looking on eBay, Audioantiquary.com etc, it's harder than ever to source GEs, Amperex, Telefunken RS237s, balanced pairs very rare, balanced quads less chance than a lottery win.
ANs and Mayer Elrogs right now the only practical options.
Would love to hear opinions of a direct comparison of these, one is nearly 3x the price of the other.

 

[Mfdave]

I too would love that comparison. I just bought some AN and some GE NOS today, will receive in the next few weeks. I reached out to Elrog to see if they had any plans to do a run of the Moly ER242 last month and they said they didn't plans unfortunately. The regular ER211 cost a pretty penny, agreed, and I haven't heard much feedback on them.

I'd be the first to jump on the ER242 when possible. Elrog, if you're listening... I want to give you money!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Haha, never say that to anyone in audio!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Would love to hear your AN v GE comparo.
Are you going AN 211 or 242?

 

[Mfdave]

I believe it's the AN 4242E - the moly one.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Holy Moly!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Really fascinated to hear your thoughts here, practicality v expense means that NOS Amperex and Telefunkens are out, and so are the Mayer Elrogs if the AN 242s at least shade the GEs.

 

[Zero000]

Was listening to those AN Molys recently, Mark.

They sound a bit constrained to me. Like they don't flesh out as well as Amperex or sound as natural. A friend agrees with me and said I wouldn't like them. He owns some and is a well known hi-fi reviewer.

 

[spiritofmusic]

One review says they're a little polite and undynamic compared to Psvane Acme 211s.
My problem with the latter is the problems so many have reported, unreliability, sometimes straight out of the box.
I'm still dreaming of a matched quad of Telefunken RS237s.
Some lucky soul picked up just such a quad at Munich!

 

[Mfdave]

I’m ordering a quad of psvane acme 211 too so over the next months I’ll be able to outline mg experience.

The airtight platinum 211 is serviceable
the 3211 as long as I have nice long plate mullard, amperex or brimar in the 12ax7 slot to add some “musicality”. Brimar being my favorite in my setup.

 

[iaxel]

Can anyone share his experiences with various types of 211 tubes?
I recently brought 211 SET monoblocks (one 211 per channel) and it came with Sino (?) made tubes.
I feel the amp has a bit of a mid-bass bump (could be the tubes?) and I'm looking for a more linear frequency response.
What would you recommend? How do the Psvane ACME sound?

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

What about ELROG?

 

[iaxel]

What about ELROG?

They are possibly the most expensive out there (apart from extremely rare NOS).
I was asking for some comparison.

 

[Mfdave]

The psvane acmes (a quad) that I recently ordered were destroyed when they went through customs. A total mess, otherwise I’d offer feedback haha. Psvane is replacing all 4 tubes after I sent them photos. Very good customer service so far. I don’t know how they plan to avoid the rough handlers this time around.

 

[spiritofmusic]

The psvane acmes (a quad) that I recently ordered were destroyed when they went through customs. A total mess, otherwise I’d offer feedback haha. Psvane is replacing all 4 tubes after I sent them photos. Very good customer service so far. I don’t know how they plan to avoid the rough handlers this time around.

Oh, that must be when customs "mistake" DO NOT DROP for DROP AS HARD AS POSSIBLE.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

They are possibly the most expensive out there (apart from extremely rare NOS).
I was asking for some comparison.

are you worried about ELROG prices with THAT system!?

 

[bonzo75]

They are possibly the most expensive out there (apart from extremely rare NOS).
I was asking for some comparison.

I haven't heard them, someone mentioned they are better than GE/RCA but not as good as Amperex, United or WE. Though now there might be some TM does with molybdenum or some special version, worth trying, you can always sell off if it is not good.