STAY AWAY FROM RICHARDSON ELECTRONICS, ENGLAND www.rell.com
572B's are sold here in Europe by different dealers, the tubes are distributed
by Richardson Electronics in England, and they claim that it's Cetron tubes
manufactured for National. Sorry to tell, but it isn't the truth - it's newly
produced Chinese tubes re-badged by Richardsons as National and also have
''Made in USA'' printed on them. So be careful, before buying. I have been
offered, not by Richardsons, but by the distributor to get a full refund if
sending the tubes back. Richardsons does not even answer e-mails...
This is part of an e-mail from a serious distributor in England:
>>Hello Osten,
>>Taylor is a brand name for RF parts but these can be re-badged any type!
>>We have National 572B which are badged by Richardsons which is the main
>>outlet for Eimac, but need not be Eimac !
There are original Cetron NOS 572B's available here in Europe, have a look at
www.clhi-fi.it It's in Italian, but click on ''Surplus'' and than ''avanti''
to go to page four. There are no prices on the WEB, but in an e-mail they asked
500 ''euros'' for a matched pair, plus postage. That's totally USD 645 for a
matched pair!!! I know that there are also NOS Cetron 572B's available in
USA, but unfortunately we have to pay more postage, customs, 25 percent VAT
etc. so here we always try to buy from a European Community country, this was
no customs and other extra charges to pay.
Probably time to get all ''glass tubes'' amplifiers marked ''junk'' and in the
future only get amplifiers with ceramic tubes!
73 de Osten SM5DQC e-mail: sm5dqc@algonet.se
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