Philips

Philips ECC82 12AU7 Tubes Matched Pair - Dimple Disc Getter - Holland 1972 -NOS

$174.00 USD

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Perfectly matched & balanced pair of vintage Philips ECC82 12AU7 audio tubes - NOS - Heerlen, Holland 1972 - Super Rare

Product Summary

With strong NOS performance and practically same date codes, this special pair of vintage tubes are priced to sell! Many tube sound enthusiasts bought Holland 12AU7's as their first pair of vintage tubes to replace their JJ stock tubes...right here at Soundlumia's eBay store, and we believe it's the best choice they've ever made just like many others among us audiophiles.

Sound Characteristics

You get the wonderful Amperex Holland midrange presentation that is transparent, natural and expansive, with a slight touch of warmth that illuminates your musical world. The top end is super airy, smooth and nicely extended like one would expect from the best Siemens tubes, thanks to the very rare dimple disc getter on these tubes. Vocals are intimate, sweet and forward (but not right in your face.) Every piece of music you play through these tubes sounds like from a vinyl record, whether your sound source is phono or not. The sound stage is spacious and structured. Bass is incredibly deep but well controlled and feels as accurate as on the high end German ECC82's (Siemens, Telefunken, Valvo etc.) We would recommend these as an excellent alternative if you are seeking the high end 12AU7/ECC82 tubes that can deliver the legendary Dutch house sound flawlessly.

Professional Sound Evaluation

The pair worked wonderfully and sounded terrific in our professional studio setup for monitoring.

- Input: Cambridge Audio CXC V2 dedicated CD transport + Schiit Audio Bifrost 2 Multibit DAC

- Amplification: Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies (3rd gen) Balanced Headphone Amplifier

- Output: Focal Clear MG Pro open-back headphones

Our full tube sound review was written 100% based on the actual listening experience while this pair of tubes were running in the system described above.

Professional testing & sound evaluation

Both tubes tested NOS (100%+ nominal mutual conductance) on a reliable and regularly calibrated Mercury 2000 tube tester with the following results (mutual conductance both in uMhos and in percentage of nominal):

Tube 1: 3,190/3,100 (106%/103%)

Tube 2: 3,190/3,190 (106%/106%)

Good tubes start at 2000 and new tubes (incl. NOS/NIB) 3,000 - 3,100, and the Mercury 2000's rated mutual conductance (nominal) for new tubes is 3,000. Test result can also be seen in the pictures. In case you wonder what all these numbers mean to your sound experience, it's actually quite straightforward: mutual conductance directly translates to a tube's ability to amplify sound, so the higher these numbers the stronger.

Appearance & cosmetic condition

We treasure this pair for its pristine cosmetic condition - nearly 100% of the paint is well preserved. The Heerlen factory date codes etched on glass are perfectly visible on both tubes:

delta 2L1 (delta = Heerlen, Holland, 2 = 1972, L = December, 1 = Week 1 of the production month)

delta 2C4 (delta = Heerlen, Holland, 2 = 1972, C = March, 4 = Week 4 of the production month)

Packaging

This pair of tubes will be packaged in the NEW Philips reproduction boxes, secured by a handmade paper ribbon (by courtesy of Soundlumia.)

Shipping Policy

- US Shipping: Flat-rate USPS Ground Advantage

- International Shipping: (Please read carefully) USPS First Class International is used for all countries EXCEPT: Armenia, Chile, China, India, Latvia, Mauritius, Mexico, Serbia, Slovenia, Tuvalu, and Vietnam. If you prefer to use a different carrier or shipping service, please contact us first so we can establish shipping rates before you make payment. If you are a buyer in one of the excluded countries, you must contact us prior to purchase to arrange shipping(USPS Priority recommended), or we may not be able to fulfill your order using standard shipping due to our concern of undelivered packages or shipping delays in your country.

- Same day shipping: Orders placed by 2:00PM US Pacific Time on weekdays are posted on the same day, otherwise the next business day.

- Combined shipping available - request invoice for total before making payment or receive shipping credit after order ships.

Return Policy - Please READ carefully

Returns are acceptable if we made a mistake by delivering you wrong or defective products. Tubes we sell are guaranteed to work because we run professional tests and sound evaluation TWICE: before they are approved for listing AND before we ship them to customers. So the "defective item" case doesn't exist and please do not bother trying - this type of returns will NOT be accepted without proof that tubes are faulty and we will open disputes with eBay. Sound experience is very subjective and we do NOT accept returns because you do not like the tube's sound signature or because you changed your mind about your purchase. Please contact us to work things out before submitting return requests claiming "item is defective" or "item not as described" or "just didn't like it" or "changed your mind."

Tube rollers abusing the return system will be reported to eBay immediately and negative feedback will be left to your account - that's guaranteed. We have already opened several dispute cases to report abusive buyers and eBay has always ruled in our favor. International buyers who request return or refund claiming your country's import duties or sales taxes/VAT/GST are too high will be reported to eBay immediately for dishonesty and will be permanently blacklisted from purchasing from Soundlumia. We are committed to working closely with eBay to help rid the marketplace of dishonest, unjust, unreasonable, abusive buyers that are detrimental to the vintage tubes market and the audiophile community.