Tubes Summary
The famed late 1950s tone on on D-getter! Straight from the beautiful Heerlen, Holland! These have been hunted to near extinction but here we are with a strong matched pair of 1958/59 Miniwatt PCC88 (7DJ8), the upgraded version of 6DJ8 with higher heater rating (7 volts vs. 6 volts on 6DJ8's) and much longer heater life.
Sound Qualities
You get every bit of the legendary Heerlen tone with deeper bass, amazing sound details and a touch of midrange warmth. The sound stage produced by these tubes are very spacious and wonderfully structured, as one often hear on high end Ameprex/Philips tubes such as 6922's and even some 7308's. The very rare d-getter on these tubes helps further refine detail retrieval and top end extension and what you get is a super smooth version of these beloved Miniwatt tubes.
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: Liquid Platinum Tube Amplifier by Alex Cavalli
- 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.
Appearance & cosmetic condition
We treasure this pair also because nearly 95% of the inscription is well preserved on both tubes, which is amazing given the tubes' age, and the etched date codes are perfectly visible on the glass:
delta 8E (delta = Heerlen, 8 = 1958, E = May)
delta 9B (delta = Heerlen, 9 = 1959, B = Feb)
Professional Tube Testing
The two tubes are tightly matched and perfectly balanced based on mutual conductance. Both tubes super strong NOS on a B&K 747 tube tester with the following excellent result:
Tube 1: 108/110
Tube 1: 113/109
Good tubes start around 65 - 70 and new tubes (incl. NOS/NIB) come in at around 100.
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. Soundlumia-sponsored 3-day guaranteed worldwide delivery program ($35 flat rate for ALL destinations in the world) via DHL Express is highly recommended to serious and committed buyers.
- 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.