Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[boogietube]

With all of out modern technology, why can't the famous VF14M be manufactured? Is it a question of process? economics?
It seems to me that someone should be able to do this.  

Sean

[compasspnt]

This has been discussed here several times before.

Not going to happen.

It's all of the above and more.

[Klaus Heyne]

...and, as had been discussed before, the devil is in the detail:

super-rare materials, obsolete manufacturing processes, loss of institutional memory, lack of a corporate cooperation between a huge tube maker (Telefunken) and the, at the time, largest condenser microphone manufacturer in the world (Neumann).

[johnR]

The thread in the following link contains a general discussion of why tubes can't be made like they used to. Many of the reasons also apply to the VF14M:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/438090/0/?srch= tube+manufacture#msg_438090

[jpaul_bordon]

Was the VF-14 (M or non M) ever used in a piece of equipment that we could be looking for in yard sales or electronic swap meets here in the USA?  I guess I am asking for non microphone factory installed applications.  I have picked up more than one non functioning old organs for the near NOS vintage tubes!

[Klaus Heyne]

The VF14 was specifically designed for the Neumann U47 microphone. Though some of the rejects that were found not suitable to work in mics were resold on the amateur/hobby radio market.

Therefore, VF14 are almost never found on garage sales or flea markets.

[Jakob Erland]

I'm pretty sure that the rejects were also used in a commercial UHF- or FM-converter box to interface old receivers to the "new" standard

edit: http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_vf14.html

Jakob E.

[Klaus Heyne]

Please cite a reference to the "commercial" availability and application of this box.

From the link you gave, the bread box shown and the reference to the owner looks to me like a one-off home made project by a hobbyist.

[jpaul_bordon]

It sure looks like a one-off to me. I wonder if this unit is sitting in a german basement of stacked boxes marked "Grand Dad's Experiments"

[J.J. Blair]

That's an expensive experiment!   LOL.

[volki]

Klaus Heyne wrote on Tue, 02 November 2010 20:29

The VF14 was specifically designed for the Neumann U47 microphone.

Wow, is that so? I was under the impression that the first tube ever custom designed for a mic was Hiller's MSC-1 (sub miniature) from around 1946. Especially if you compare the dimensions, it surprises me that Neumann would have gone with a steel tube of that size for a custom design... of course, "normal" miniature tubes weren't introduced commercially until a few years after the U47's developement, but the technology for even smaller tubes obviously was around already...

[Klaus Heyne]

Steel body octagonals were of course already in use at the time the U47 came into being, but the particular octagonal Neumann settled on was exclusively manufactured and delivered to the microphone company.

Another myth is that the VF14 tube was a war or pre- war tube. Not so. The first  VF14 was manufactured two years after World War II ended.

[Fletcher]

Klaus Heyne wrote on Fri, 05 November 2010 13:39

Another myth is that the VF14 tube was a war or pre- war tube. Not so. The first  VF14 was manufactured two years after World War II ended.

All due respect - I am curious to the source of this information - I don't know if some of the people I have been speaking to over here are regurgitating "the myth" or have alternative / factual information.

If you're not comfortable posting that source - PM or email would be fine.  I have no agenda or dispute with your statement, but like many other, am in search of the truth.

Peace.

[Klaus Heyne]

Primary information: date codes. I have never come across VF14 date codes that preceded 1947.

Secondary information: two former Telefunken (the original company) tube factory employees, one now dead, the other old.

I am also not aware of any other tube that Telefunken has ever issued that was exclusively made for and sold to one manufacturer only.

To my knowledge, neither Neumann nor anyone else had made microphones or other products prior to 1947/1948 (introduction of the U47) which used that tube, and no one used it after the U47's phase-out period, starting around 1959 (when Gotham's strong hand was felt in Berlin.)

I am of course open to modifying the information I publicised, if it can be corroborated.

[Oliver Archut]

The main source  for production numbers is the Telefunken production code book,  the last sales director of the tube plant in Ulm has it, he save it when the factory was closed. His VF14 numbers match the documentation I have from the tube plant in Berlin, in the time frame 1946 to 1958 27500 VF14 were made in three production runs. The VF14 was one of the last steel-tubes ever made.
Also 38000 glass VF14 were made by the former Telefunken tube plant in Erfurt, those ones were made 1948 and labeled with the diamond shape but Telefunken was replaced with Funkwerk.
Only a hand full of them are still around, the majority was discarded and ended up in a landfill/wetland in Erfurt due to production/quality issues.