A Plea To Tube Manufacturers w/ Upscale Audio's Kevin Deal
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- The effects of pricing decisions today can end up costing the tube audio and pro music industry in much larger ways down the road. Raising prices is sometimes a choice. We did not raise PrimaLuna prices for 9 years...even after the U.S. Govt put a 25% tariff on them. And I continue to pay that tariff today.
If I really love hi-end audio, I have a responsibility to it, and sometimes that means taking a financial hit.
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You stopped selling instead of gouging, told your customers in a video and newsletter not to panic, and now you are starting to sell again at the same price you sold for before the Russian embargo while controlling quantities. A textbook way to run a business that creates loyal customers. Perfectly executed, Mr. Deal.
400°@12 hours
Im going to get all of them. Period
Thier indestructible and push them into 4k on your eq and watch out. Theyll never red plate. They were made for rockets and withstood that. 80 years is nothing to these tubes . I say forget chinese , get authentic LS telefunken rocket tubes not psvane.
Upscale audio is legit.
This guy runs a tight ship and his employees fix problems quickly.
Best service ive recieved and i believe him.
I purchased perhaps your last pair of 12au7x tubes from your “Stash.” Using in my VTL 6.5 Series II preamp. Simply stunning in my system. Much appreciated.
I m 64 years old Kevin and purchased several tubes from you over 35 years,and had only one grow weak recently,these kids need to chill,if you do the math you will find all you need is two sets of tubes, the ones you're using and a spare set.6000 hrs is what you can expect from a good set of tubes 3000 at the least,so stop wasting money and buy music or a new stylus.thank you Kevin and may the gods bless you and yours. Jeff b
Thanks for all that you do Kevin! Even though I have to work within a tight budget, you have always treated me right and worked hard to make my $$$ go as far as possible!
Terrific video Ken. I have been looking for a new amp for a while but with all of this GRAB ASS MENTALITY with the prices escalating monthly I've had it. I'm just going to sit back & let it all blow up. After the dust settles we will see who survives. Take care & be well, TMP from N.J.
I'm not a tube guy but I so respect your concern here. Some things are out of control. Way too much gouging going on. Good for you for saying this to the audio world.
Sanity, Kevin. That's why we love you.
I’m trying to imagine a 16 year old today getting a summer job so that they can buy a tube amp.
I can easily imagine it among 16 year old guitar players, but maybe not 15 year old audio fans
I find it hard to imagine any teenager saving up for anything other than the latest smartphone which, remember, is designed to be obsolete within two years (rinse and repeat). Sad, but that is where we are.
I’m trying to imagine a 16 year old today getting a job. For any reason
glad i am not a 16 year old in today's world.
Preach Kevin! If anybody is retubing their amp more than once every 5 years they are doing it wrong! Especially guitar amps which often benefit from sagging tubes.
Well said Kevin. Sadly, as with many industries now, gouging and corruption is the name of the game, from audio to groceries to insurance to you name it. It won't stop as long as people don't care about ethics. I used to be an audio journalist, I did for four years (2013 to 2017) and part of the reason I stopped was that I could not be bought and some others doing the same thing and your regular audiophiles did not like my high ethics, which I was trying to bring into that industry as I was tired of the elitism and lying and disinformation ripping the hobby to shreds. I wanted to help more folks get in rather than keep them out. In the end there was great pressure and threats so I decided I did not have the ability to keep up the fight. I did a fair job when I was in it and met many ethical people in the audio industry, I even had some surprise help from people like Andrew Jones who really is a nice guy and became a friend and others who really care and was able to identify the good guys from the bad ones. I was strictly independent and volunteer and my biggest reward was having folks walk up to me at shows reading my name tag and realizing that they were reading my articles and would tell me that I helped them in some way. There is no greater humbling experience than that! In fact, I saw you at one show some years ago, but you were very busy and I never got the opportunity to say hello.
I don't own any tube gear, but I am curious about it. I also have a Sansui 8080db, which sounds somewhat similar to tube, but obviously it is solid state. I'm curious about true tube sound though. Right now with what is going on it is a struggle just to get food on the table and fuel in the car, so there is literally no discretionary funds for me. Sadly, it will be a while or maybe never that I could try some true tube sound as it is a curiosity and not a necessity. Given the opportunity in dreams, I would have wanted to try a little tube rolling as well, in particular I would like to try a set of Russian tubes. I have heard both sides that say Russian tubes are great and Russian tubes are terrible. Of course, that is all subjective.
Maybe someday, I will get to try tubes, I don't know.
Price of Neodyme wich uses in Loudspeakers raised up to 50% in the last Month
wich makes products more expansive.
Agree with you Kevin. I will call out VIVATUBES for pricing craziness. Quad Tung-Sol KT150 for $1706.85 and Quad Tung-Sol KT170 for $2,052.54
Agreed. Prices on Chinese tubes have jumped there, that's greed pure and simple. Very disappointing.
Kevil, Bravo ! Tubes should continue to be used in design, unless hyper inflated prices "Short Out" tubes future !
Damnit Kevin. You really pissed me off some months back with posts you made at Audiogon, and I fired off some snark and left. Been ignoring your channel, but seeing your reaction to the "tube crisis" has brought me back. You're doing an honorable thing with your messaging and business practices, and I have to thank you for it.
I'm going to write you in, Brother. Excellent
I know you don't carry these but the price increase for a made in the USA aluminum YG acoustics speaker went up 500-1000..A competing Magico also made in the USA and made form Aluminum 10,000+ !!! YEP 67-77k for a little itty bitty Magico M2
I hate to say it as I love tubes as much as the next audiophile, but you can't eat glass or put it in your tank.
I do hope Western Electric here in nearby Rossville GA can turn out a reasonably priced product!
Good luck with that. I'd love it too, but how many WE 300B videos have you seen uploaded this year by owners?
@@upscaleaudio I'm not talking about the 300B's, WE is talking about some high quality reasonably priced "other" tubes targeted primarily for guitarists. Personally, I'm about 35 miles from the factory.
@@brettsterrett1909 they won't be reasonably priced, that's guaranteed. It all depends on quality and the yield will start low, that's unavoidable while they optimise tooling which will take time and be very expensive. If they're able to gain customers they may be able to break into mass manufacturing but that's a long way down the road. In the meantime they'll be in the luxury commodity price range due to low volumes.
@@brettsterrett1909 I know they SAID that. Nobody that knows the tube business pays any attention to it. Like I said...search TH-cam for WE 300B owners in the last year. If they shipped 100 tubes, 10 of those owners would talk about it. A lot of noise. I laughed out loud when I read those articles.
Nothing made in america is cheap because out cost of labor is high. Probably 10x russia and 100x china
The retail price of my canadian integrated bought in May 2020 is now 22% higher. Ridiculous. In the same time Rolex increased its price to 3-4% « only ». My hifi retailer complains about people not buying hifi anymore ; price increase doesn’t help for sure. I plan to sell my integrated and buy from manufacturers who still live in the real world.
Great video. I just wished more companies had the balls to put out videos like this and I’m not just talking about tubes manufacturers.
To translate what uncle Kevin is saying is get both Ss and tube gears. Tube price high use Ss. Tube price low use tubes, or Ss if thats what you like.
Love that Sansui 1000a.
What a start for a 16 year old!
Tubes are where it is at!
We recently recorded 2 young girls (18 & 22)and their father on a 16 channel Manley tube mixer with a U47 microphone for a media video to raise funds for their brother experimental cancer treatment. The quality of the sound is amazing! I can't imagine how amazing Manley's hifi equipment must be! EveAnna's team is amazing supporting this vintage piece!
Yea man. They sound great. EveAnna is one of the best people in my life. I truly love her, as do so many other people. 100% unique, and 100% honest. I want to use the word "authentic" but it's been hijacked by people that aren't. She's something.
@@upscaleaudio love to forward you the video and audio track once publishing is complete. Trying to protect the kids original work
Thank you!
Thank you, Kevin!
Solid state baby!!..good thing i have a few sitting on the shelf.
Love this guy
The fed should put out the same message but telling people to stop buying houses.
Thanks Kevin well said. 💓🎶
What about having fun with tube rolling? I can wait for this to be over and settle down but part of the fun is having different kinds of tubes and experimenting with sound.
If it goes the way of the ammunition industry...it wont come back down and thats the prob...companies will get greedy with this crazed demand cuz someone wrote an article about russian tubes, so now the people create this unwarranted craze demand that the manufacturers will 100% take advantage of and it will become the new standard. Dont expect to be tube rolling on the cheap anymore
Mike you are 100% correct. 10 mm HP'S 180 grain are now going for $ 3.00 a round if you can find them. TMP from N.J.
It's same way with ammo.
I find it somewhat rich that the guy who has a warehouse full of tubes, and is most likely selling them at market prices, and making a killing, is complaining about people selling tubes at a profit.
If there weren't hundreds of people scouring the ends of the earth looking for a few tubes to sell to make a buck, Kevin's marketplace wouldn't exist. A market needs buyers and sellers.
When a major supplier of any commodity goes offline indefinitely due to war, prices will go up. When governments print money hand over fist, inflation follows. Kevin, prices aren't coming down anytime soon. Why dont you start up your own tube manufacturing line and sell 12ax7s at $10 per unit? That would solve the whole crisis and you could be everyone's hero.
Before making snarky comments based on "most likely" look at my website. I'm selling them, limiting quantities, at the same price we did months ago. Which is about 20-30% less than Tubestore, the only other major seller offering Russian tubes right now. I could have raked in a lot of money but tarnished my name by price gouging.
Further, I have asked people NOT to buy now everywhere I can, because no factory has gone "offline". I'm in this business, and I happen to know what is really going on much better than most. Stop panic buying. Consumers are causing the problem.
@@upscaleaudio I don't understand why some guys make ignorant comments. You stopped selling instead of gouging, told your customers in a video and newsletter not to panic, and now you are starting to sell again at the same price you sold for before the Russian embargo while controlling quantities. A textbook way to run a business that creates loyal customers. Perfectly executed, Mr. Deal.
This is a temporary problem, Russian tubes will soon be available again. But I can see your point. JJ tube prices are trough the roof over here in Europe. I am not sure if it is the vendors or the manufacturers. But if I where a manufacturer and I was seeing my resellers price gauging my products, I would put up my prices if only to take some of their profit margin away.
Thanks Hugo. That's the problem. We're opening up ordering now with a message that says "don't buy tubes now. Force the prices down"
If prices stayed low, there would be a real shortage and the availability would be zero. Think of the gas lines in the US in the 70s during the time of price controls.
Right On!
Kevin plea is valid, look at what happens to the video graphics market and crypto currency.
Well said
Hi kevin where have you been 😢
great video brother
Yup... avoid tubes like the plague.
Some tubes are too expensive. Some 300b tubes are $1500 or more for a pair. Chinese tubes may be better than you think because they may have bought their factories from Germany or another country when they thought they were obsolete. The Russian tubes may be available via China. For the sake of tube audio lovers please end this war.
When you gouge people during times like these the result is losing customers in the future when times return to normal.
If its a well made amp usually you don't burn through tubes very fast so I'm fine for now . I'm not going to stress on the temporary issue of supply unless it starts sounding bad . Going forward I will definitely try to buy amps that don't run a high bias avoiding the need to replace tubes every year.
Preach it brother!
“How much money can I get away with?” You mean the behavior the *oil* *companies* are exhibiting currently in jacking up fuel cost, causing pump cost to inflate to $6/gallon for 87 octane gas is bad behavior? BTW, oil companies are making wind-fall profits currently.
Tubes are the new toilet paper
❤👍
Western Electric in the good ol' USA will be making tubes.
Have you seen their prices though?
I’ll buy American. Even if they cost more money.
While I would like to see that, I know a lot about this subject and would not count on it.
I'm going to wait until someone else starts making KT150's. Even if it is the Chinese, it will be the lesser of two evils.
You.must have tubes in stock
We do, and we are turning on ordering
Well tell the Russians to knock it off.
now we have all old technology and they charge likes it new 😂
We’ll said Kevin. Amused by the ignorance of some of the posters.
wayne carr
It’s all politics cheap amps use China tubes
Sansui 1000a sound better than 9090db