6DN7 sale at Antique Electronic Supply

[Natural Sound]

Thought I'd pass this along to my fellow Bottleheads. 6DN7's for $6.56 each. Good time to buy a few spares if you need them.

https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/6dn7-triode-dissimilar-double

Actually all NOS tubes are on sale, 25% off.

[Paul Birkeland]

That's a nice price for the 2 in stock!

[Doc B.]

They might even match. Or not.

[Natural Sound]

Well, snarky comments aside they had more when I first posted. Hopefully a few benefited. Maybe I'll just shut up next time. 

[Paul Birkeland]

Oh, no harm intended.  It reminds me of the post elsewhere here about bulk 6080s for sale at Parts Connexion.  They had them around for quite a while, but then they magically all disappeared a few days after the link was posted on here

[Doc B.]

An my post was in remembrance of how many years we bought 6DN7s from them, and how at first they sent us batches all of a same brand, then a few odd balls started to mix in, and eventually nothing ever matched up if they had any at all.

It's really pretty amazing so many have cropped up over the years. If you go back and look at TV circuits from the era, very few used a 6DN7. I feel like we made a contribution to the cause of recycling with those tubes.

[Karl5150]

NS, since the intro of the SEX 3 called my attention to it, I've watched the same thing happen at the sites I look to for spares: here today and gone tomorrow. My 2 series SEX plays 40+ hours a week at work. I too was bumbed that they were down to just 2 after seeing your post. Don't stop posting any leads you find as I plan on listening long past retirement (still a ways off) and I'm afraid my meager stash of matched RCAs won't carry me to that time when I can no longer remember what they are for.
Doc, am I misremembering 10K hours as a possible lifespan on them?
Karl

[Paul Birkeland]

I have a general purpose amp in my workshop that I leave running 24/7/365.  It runs the 6FM7, which is a compactron relative of the 6EA7.  Your post reminded me to yank the tubes today and see how they look on the tester, and they are now finally getting weak.  I believe I put them into service in 2011, so that's 60,000 hours of operation (maybe round it down to 50,000, I probably could've pulled these earlier).

In your case, that would mean your peak possible lifetime would be about 30 years, but I'd suspect the thermal cycling will reduce that a bit.