Upscale Audio says not to worry about tube availability

[admin]

Looks interesting. I can't seem to find a price listing on the website?

[Joe Appierto]

I believe you have to contact them for pricing.

AVAILABILITY – The AT1000 tube tester is manufactured in small quantities. Demand for the AT1000 is strong, and sometimes we are out of stock. You can Contact Us to check the current price and availability.

http://amplitrex.com/order/

[admin]

Yes, I saw that. Still can't really tell if this costs $100 or $10,000 (although fairly certain it's not $100).

It's not custom made and unless shipping takes up most of the price (which I doubt), not sure why they don't want to list the price.

[AnotherJohnson]

Yes, I saw that. Still can't really tell if this costs $100 or $10,000 (although fairly certain it's not $100).

It's not custom made and unless shipping takes up most of the price (which I doubt), not sure why they don't want to list the price.

The price hasn’t really changed much over the last 5+ years. I gave $2905 with insured shipping by UPS. UPS sent me the tracking number for the right size package shortly after Chris confirmed that he had received payment.

It’s a one man show, so not listing the price means not having to update a website.

Right now our Lowe’s (building materials and big box store) is quoting prices that are only good for 10 days or the next price increase, whichever comes first.

[admin]

I think that is a reasonable price considering it's features. It looks like they have specs for 100's of different types of tubes (I was not even aware there were so many varieties). That must have taken some time to build the database. Not to mention programing custom software. Very impressive.

Let us know what you think of the unit when you get it.

[AnotherJohnson]

FWIW, Chris has been Johnny on the spot with answers to emailed questions. And he does provide a one year warranty.

The assorted “restored” units have some issues dealing with some of the more modern tubes, like KT150’s.

[AnotherJohnson]

I just got a roofing bid on a house my son rents from us, with the provision that materials were going up 12% at the end of June. We haven’t seen this level of inflation since Jimmy Carter.

[admin]

Inflation up, stock market down... we'll see how this goes but doesn't look good in the near future. Price of audio equipment has been increasing as well.

[AnotherJohnson]

On the bright side, the AT-1000 is moving in the UPS system. It should reach me early next week if it doesn’t get hi-jacked on its way out of California.

[AnotherJohnson]

The issue of Stereophile that arrived the other day has an update on the tube situation. Tubes appear to be shipping again, and there are serious efforts afoot to try to bring stability to production by broadening the manufacturing base to include more suppliers. It’s a slow process.

I checked Upscale’s inventory yet again. They are still restricting purchases, and prices are higher (increases blamed on tariffs). But the purchasing limits are relaxed compared to those in force in April.

Honestly, I don’t see prices ratcheting back down. I think they will stay high. The new manufacturers will need to recover investment costs. It’s sort of like the idea that we need $5+/gallon gas in order to encourage investment in EVs.

Meanwhile, some of us will stay with companies like CJ and ARC, even in the face of rising prices, because we like what we hear. When you spread the cost of tubes over the hours of expected use, they’re still lower than the hourly cost of running a $10k phono cartridge.

[admin]

Glad to hear that the supply chains are running. I hope you are wrong about the cost not coming down. Don't even want to think what it will cost to do a full sixteen KT120 retube of my ART amps.

[MattHooper]

Honestly, I don’t see prices ratcheting back down. I think they will stay high. The new manufacturers will need to recover investment costs. It’s sort of like the idea that we need $5+/gallon gas in order to encourage investment in EVs.

I've seen some tube prices come back down a fair bit, here and there, but it's been spotty. I agree I think we are likely looking at significantly higher tube prices for a long time. Very glad I stocked up for my Premier 12s and my 16ls2 preamp!

In fact, I had bought a Benchmark LA4 preamp to see if it might replace the CJ preamp. After a while of living with the LA4 I thought I'd weened myself off a tube preamp. But when the tube market started rising I bought extra EH 6922s for my preamp. Glad I did because when I put it back in the system I said "ok, I'm NOT selling this!"

[AnotherJohnson]

Glad you’ve got what you need. Your post reminded me to take a look at Kevin’s inventory.

I don’t see the limitations on order size now.

But prices still look high by recent historical standards.

Especially if you go for his ARC Select grade with cryogenic treatment. Over $100/tube for 6H30Pi.

[admin]

I'm glad stock is back, but agree with the tube price assessment. Looking close to $120 per KT120 tube.

[MattHooper]

Upscale Audio's Tung Sol 6550's are about double the price vs The Tube Store.

I bought back up KT120s, 6550s and driver tubes just before all prices went nuts (found someone who hadn't raised their prices yet).

[Big Dog RJ]

Nice one on the tube preamp Matt!

That has always been the case, virtually with any of CJ's tube preamps, especially the Premier series or any of their higher range preamps. Once they're in a particular system and controlling everything with utter musical brilliance and high musicality factor, there's no turning back... you just can't get enough of it! And if you wanted to surpass this level, you'd have to spend an awful lot more!

The Prem12's and Prem 16LS2 is a SOTA combination, just sit back and enjoy those fine tunes!
Cheers, RJ

[Paolo]

Early in 2022 I decided to sell my beloved vintage tube separates. Not because they required a total of 26 tubes- I did have plenty of spares, but because I wanted to simplify my life. In the sale I included dozens of the spares.

Recently, missing the irreplaceable sound of tubes, I replaced the old components with a CAV 45 S2. Now, with proper run-in, it sounds wonderful. A fringe benefit: It requires a total of merely 7 tubes. As someone(s) once said "Don't Look Back"....

[Paolo]

Hoarding tubes, inflated prices, and panic buying. Reminiscent of the early days of Covid, when the market shelves were empty of toilet paper.

Ah, so unfortunately predictable. The human species not at its finest.

[AnotherJohnson]

Hoarding tubes, inflated prices, and panic buying. Reminiscent of the early days of Covid, when the market shelves were empty of toilet paper.

Ah, so unfortunately predictable. The human species not at its finest.

Fear and Greed - two very strong emotions.

[MattHooper]

Hoarding tubes, inflated prices, and panic buying. Reminiscent of the early days of Covid, when the market shelves were empty of toilet paper.

Ah, so unfortunately predictable. The human species not at its finest.

I wonder, though, how much of the buying was actually irrational, cynical or worthy of disparagement?

When it looked like tubes were becoming unavailable...for who knows how long?...and prices were indicating a steep upward trajectory for what was currently available, isn't it reasonable if you have lots of money (and love!) invested in your amp to stock up on some back up tubes?

For instance I'm using KT120s in my amps. There was no assurance when and if they would be available again, especially at anything near the "normal" prices, so I grabbed back ups.

Enough people doing this perfectly rational hedging against future uncertainty is probably enough to have put pressure on the tube market.

So I don't think what happened was necessarily irrational.