"Black Sable" Treatment- $599? For a 12AU7???

  • Thread starter Thread starter stevieb
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stevieb

Just another guy, really.
Tubeworks wants a whopping $599 for amatched pair of 12AU7's they say have received the "black Sable" Treatment. WTF IS that? How can it possibly make a tube that otherwise would sell for as low as $7.95 for a Sino? I don't doubt Sinos are cheap, maybe even crap tubes, but, really, SIX HUNDRED BUX??

Just looked on their website- frozen to 300 degrees below, so such. SIX HUNDRED BUX???

Somebody please educate me on this one.
 
stevieb said:
Tubeworks wants a whopping $599 for amatched pair of 12AU7's they say have received the "black Sable" Treatment. WTF IS that? How can it possibly make a tube that otherwise would sell for as low as $7.95 for a Sino? I don't doubt Sinos are cheap, maybe even crap tubes, but, really, SIX HUNDRED BUX??

Somebody please educate me on this one.
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You got me there. Why would anyone need matched preamp tubes, anyway?
 
I don't know, but I bet somewhere, in one of those mags like EQ or something, there's some ancient producer who made records with T-Bone Walker or someone like that, saying something like "Yeah, if you're preamp tubes ain't blacksable'd you're wasting your time!"
 
stevieb said:
Tubeworks wants a whopping $599 for amatched pair of 12AU7's they say have received the "black Sable" Treatment. WTF IS that?
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The Black Sable treatment is where you buy their overpriced tubes and they buy mink coats for their wives.

ggunn said:
You got me there. Why would anyone need matched preamp tubes, anyway?
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Matched preamp tubes would be handy if you use a stereo power amp.
 
Black Sable, otherwise known as the B.S. treatment. People will buy and believe anything. There are indeed well made tubes and poorly made tubes, but no preamp tube should cost three-hundred dollars. New stock, old stock, new old stock, whatever. Three hundred dollars is ridiculous for a relatively simple component.
 
I got a matched pair of cryo-treated JJ power tubes (admittedly EL84s) off of ebay for like $45 a while back.
 
ggunn said:
Why would anyone need matched preamp tubes, anyway?
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if you have a two channel tube preamp and you would like to use for drum overheads or any other stereo application it would be nice to have the tubes in it be matched.


regardless of that, black sable is some expensive snake oil.
 
Lee Mavers (the Las) insisted on original 60's dust on the original 60's tubes in the original 60's consol - I think they're aiming for something like that.
Being that most dust is actually broken down skin flakes you might consider getting a septuagenarian to exfoliate over the tubes you already have for extra specialness.
 
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