Where do you guys buy replacement tubes?

I hope I don't give the wrong impression. If you call a typical tube store, the owner, let alone anyone else, will not talk to you about what will sound best. Ther are a couple botique dealers that will, but they don't have the stock we do as it is a side job typically.

I have not wanted to give up helping every customer myself....but I think it's silly to think someone else here can't do it. But the challenge is...none of the fine folks that work here know the sonic changes that occured in, say, an Audio Researh SP-9 MKI, vs a MKII and MKIII. I happened to live through that stuff.

We will become a smidge more "automated" via on-line ordering for the experienced tube-head. That should help. I just don't want people to think we are too busy for personal attention. That's what it's all about. But it's customers first. They deserve that. If a guy buys an amp on Audiogon and can't figure out how to use it, he should call the seller or manufacturer. I would never ask another dealer to take care of my customers questions.

I would like to add that the order that I placed with ATSI went smoothly and that the tubes were well packed and promptly shipped (they sound good too). I also made an Ebay purchase from a dealer (user name Roytang) that is new to Ebay and as of today has 15 positive feedbacks. Roy is located in Hong Kong and accepts PayPal. The tubes were excellent NOS Sylvania Gold 5687's (and sound really good as well), they arrived almost as quickly as my domestic (continental USA) purchases. Also thank you Kevin, for taking time to comment (I once had a job with the phone company where I took up to 115 phone calls a day and know where you are coming from).

Hello again:

I would like to add another source that I used recently for Svetlana 300B tubes which is (http://conusaudio.com). The tubes are specially selected stock (not branded for export) that the dealer received directly from Svetlana and they come with an 180 day warranty. For those of you that are concerned with the past reliablity issue of Svetlana tubes (as I was) there is a brief summary at the website of what went wrong during the production period in which "those" tubes were manufactured and it is a must read, IMO. I now have over 100 hours on the Svetlana's and they are excellent in my setup, smooth and "natural" sounding, yet detailed (very musical). Conus carries other tubes as well and Euguene, the owner, has been a pleasure to deal with.

Andy Bowman at Vintage Tube Services. Top notch.

This would be for Kev: Ok you have a one man buisness/and thus have little or no time for customers/ or just the ones of your choosing. Fine!! A merchant with not enough time to care for me /but has plenty of time for the chat room to defend his policies/ gimmme a break. Good buisness choice!!If you were a tube buyer you'd be put off by just such a merchant/I'm sure!! AS a sorta local buyer I partly was looking to check out your store. I have spent nearly 10k since that time.(Remember,I was going to bring my amp in) Snooty/ indifference/ don't got the time??? all the same to me. Hire some help,make life eaiser for yourself. Reminds me of the tv ads;"get on the net and appear 20xs larger than you are". What's the sense of attracting more customers than you can service??