Orange Valve Tester.

[t0aj15]

About a year ago I got tired of sorting through my used tube box trying to figure out good from bad, both preamp and poweramp and finally broke down and bought the Orange Valve Tester. What a HUGE time saver it has proven to be. And even though it's not cheap I'm convinced that over time it will more then pay for itself (if it hasn't already), especially if you have a dozen or more tube amps as I do. I have been able to discern in the past year that a vast majority of problems with my amps have been tube related thus avoiding a trip to the amp tech, which obviously saves both time and money. In addition it has saved on buying new tubes as it not only tests the tubes but also rates them, so used power tubes in particular can be matched for use in Duo or Quad tube poweramps where the output tubes must all match (which is a majority of amps these days). It's also handy for testing the quality of those ever more expensive NOS tubes, which may or may not be worth the price they are fetching these days. It also gives power ratings so that even preamp tubes can be properly chosen for a particular spot in the circuit.

I just thought I'mention it since gear like this doesn't very often get discussed on this forum.

[Gitfiddler]

I've considered buying a tube tester, but since a buddy of mine owns a vintage model (with handbook/guide), I typically ask for him to check out a batch of tubes for me. Doing a quick Ebay search there seem to be a bunch of old tester units available for between $100 - $600 and higher. Being a cheapskate, I focused on the lower priced units, and haven't invested in one...yet. Your Orange Valve Tester goes for around $500, but seems very versatile. Thanks for the tip.

[DetroitBlues]

I've got about a dozen or so tubes in a drawer and have no idea if they are good or not; I've also given up on tube amps as I have my last tube amp at Berkeley Music Company on consignment since no one seems to understand how good that amp really is through advertisements on different online mediums.

[davesultra]

I have an old Eico tube tester. I usually just use it to determine the tubes strength. I've got so far as to test for leaks & shorts.

[t0aj15]

That's the beauty of this tester, it automatically runs approximately 17 different tests in under two minutes (most of which I don't even understand) and gives a clear indication of how good or bad each tube is without the user even having to understand what it's testing or why. That makes it very user friendly even for beginners.