Replacement Valves (tubes)

Valve choice and operating tolerances are very important to the performance of Thermionic Culture products. The valves we use are very carefully selected and are tested by us over a period of several days to give optimum performance in all of our products. This is very important to us because we feel our products are best enjoyed when they are operating optimally.

If replacement valves are needed they can be purchased directly from Thermionic Culture. They may often last for a number of years and it is not necessarily the case that they will need to be changed on a regular basis.

Our replacement valves have all been tested to operate within specific tolerances and all valve pairs are matched to be within our specifications.

We burn in all of our valves, for several days, in the specific Thermionic product types that they are destined for. This ensures that they stay within the desired specifications after the initial run in period.

Several of our products will have valves that run in a push-pull arrangement, requiring double triode valves to have the triodes on each half matched as closely as possible. These valves are then matched in pairs for best stereo operation as well as best performance.

For these reasons, we strongly recommend that all replacement valves should be purchased from Thermionic Culture for guaranteed performance in the actual type of units in which they are intended to be used.

Using a valve with a recognised brand name does not guarantee that the particular valve is operating within specification or that it will match the tolerance requirement of a particular Thermionic Culture product. We would advise against purchasing these types of valve for that reason.

Third Party Valves

We have received reports that several third party companies are passing off replacement valve sets as 'suitable' for, or as an 'upgrade' to Thermionic Culture products.

Several technical enquiries to us regarding these third party offerings have resulted in complaints of bad performance of their valves. We feel strongly that we should mention that none of these companies are endorsed by Thermionic Culture Ltd. to supply any replacement valve sets on our behalf.

Also, no third party companies have approached us for out technical specifications, test procedures etc., or for our permission to advertise their valves as suitable replacements for our products. Unfortunately, we can’t give our approval to the suitability of these valves as we have not been told how they are selected, matched or tested.

Use of third party valves could potentially damage your product and/or invalidate the warranty.

Please contact us here to enquire about or order replacement valves.