quickie tube sockets

[aragorn723]

Hi,

Does anyone know what kind of tube sockets are used in the Quickie (ceramic/teflon/etc)?  I found this website that makes teflon sockets, and they seem to have a really interesting process for plating contacts.  Instead of using nickel-plating and a low percentage of gold over the top, they use bronze, a layer of silver, and then 100% 24K gold.  (Which sounds good because of the tarnishing qualities of nickel-maybe not an issue if they are plated since in theory air can't get in?).  Below is the link:

http://www.jacmusic.com/sockets/Socket-Yamamoto.htm

Any thoughts?  From what i've read, Teflon seems to be the gold standard in tube sockets (it provides vibration damping/isolation - presumably good for reducing microphonics?)  Any thoughts?  I don't see a price listed but thought others on the site may have encountered these already or could benefit from something like this. 

Dave

 

[Paul Birkeland]

A socket pin will not tarnish once it's soldered.... just something to consider.

The sockets provided with the kit are ceramic. 

 

[aragorn723]

A socket pin will not tarnish once it's soldered.... just something to consider.

The sockets provided with the kit are ceramic.

How about vibration damping/microphonics?  Are we talking small differences between ceramic and teflon?

 

[Paul Joppa]

Teflon itself does have more mechanical damping than ceramics. However, in most sockets the metal contact and solder tab are not rigidly attached to the insulator, they are allowed to float to accommodate variations in pin location or size. So it's not clear that the socket gets much change to affect tube resonances.

The problem with teflon is that it "flows" albeit very slowly. The mounting hardware will come loose over time no matter how tight it is at first. Second generation teflon sockets claim to have solved the problems of earlier ones, but then I fully expect third generation sockets will appear in a few years claiming to have solved the problems with the second generation ones.  :^)

 

[aragorn723]

That's interesting, so maybe if you have less microphonics initially, you will probably get some from your socket floating around  8)  Since there is this issue with the mounting hardware, what about other fixes for the mounting hardware, would hot glue work (or maybe crazy glue) to more permanently secure the socket to the chassis?