Everything You Love Without the Hassle

The tube marketplace is a bit of a minefield. 70% of new production isn’t intended for audio applications, which means inconsistent sound. Meanwhile, New Old Stock (NOS) is seen as a hallmark of quality, but it’s tough to source, expensive, and old enough to collect a pension. Even quality tubes are hit or miss after the better part of a century.

That’s where the Ray Tubes CORE Collection comes in. Here’s how it works: we produce batches of brand new tubes. Then, we identify the tubes that are suitable for audio. (The rest go on to fulfilling lives in other, less demanding applications.) Thanks to our rigorous selection process, you get a tube that sounds as good as NOS and lasts as long as NOS did when it was young. Win-win.

At the end of the day, the CORE Collection is about one simple thing: delivering the tube audio you know and love, without the hassle of navigating a confusing marketplace.

Modern Selection Equals Consistency

Most of the time, buying new production tubes is like entering the lottery. Maybe you’ll hit the jackpot—that once-in-a-lifetime tube that sounds better than you ever expected. More likely, you’ll get a tube that’s only okay, or that’s actively bad.

The Ray Tubes CORE Collection takes the gambling out of new production. We measure each tube’s amplification factor, internal resistance, and other critical parameters to ensure it’s suitable for audio applications. We also make sure it’s not prone to excessive microphonics. Finally, our audio engineers sign off on each tube. The end result are tubes that sound the way they should, every time.

We think consistency is the most important quality a tube can have. Think of it this way: even if you hit the lottery with one tube, what happens if your amp needs two? Unmatched tubes won’t live up to their capabilities. Our meticulous selection process allows us to offer tubes in our CORE Collection as matched pairs.

Modern Production Equals Reliability

Vacuum tubes are delicate electrical components. Books have been written on the myriad ways they can fail—-books with names like Getting the Most Out of Vacuum Tubes and first chapters titled Catastrophic Failures. We read them, and then we used that knowledge to make sure our tubes wouldn’t fail.

This is where new production has a big advantage over NOS. Our tubes haven’t been languishing for years while their components slowly deteriorate. Instead, they’re fresh out of our factories, built to our exact specifications—and we check our work. Each tube is inspected to make sure the vacuum seal holds and put through an extended burn-in period to weed out early failures.

Our thorough quality control is why we can offer the Ray Tubes One Year Warranty. If you buy a NOS tube that turns out to be a dud, there’s nothing you can do. With the CORE Collection, you’ll always have peace of mind.

The Ray Tubes One Year Warranty

Most vacuum tubes are notoriously fickle. That’s why warranties are rare. But we trust our products and we’re proud to offer our One Year Warranty against manufacturing defects.

Enabling Innovation

You don’t have to take our word for it. The Ray Tubes CORE Collection is enabling innovative products from some of the best-loved brands in the audio industry.

Consider the Apos Gremlin. Apos wanted to make a headphone amp at an unprecedented price point that nevertheless came with a pair of matched 12AU7 CORE tubes. We delivered. Then there’s the xDuoo TA-32. You can read all about this partnership, but suffice to say that when xDuoo needed a reliable, consistent 12AU7 tube to pair with their latest hybrid amp, they also turned to the Ray Tubes CORE Collection.

It’s like we said to begin with: the CORE Collection takes the pain out of sourcing quality vacuum tubes. It worked for Apos and xDuoo. Let it work for you, too.