Which valve tester?

[Dave_The_Vinyl_Junkie]

OK, having just restored my Troughline to working condition by swapping out the seemingly duff ECC88 at first position (shame, it was a Mullard), it occurred to me that I have no idea whether all the valves dotted around my rig are running 'in spec'.

So thoughts are turning to some sort of box of tricks that will actually give me some numbers, which strikes me as better than just plugging it in and seeing if it sounds OK.

I've been looking around the internet and eBay, seems some are cheap, others are pricey (Avo). The best option seemed to be this (though I'd have to build it): http://www.transcendentsound.com/tube_analyzer.htm .

Anyone got any thoughts? I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to valve testing equipment!

Thanks!

[John Caswell]

Hi Dave,
On the face of it pretty good, but it only measures single type valves ie EF86, ECC88. Now your Leak has ECF80s in it and there you are stuffed, so something like an AVO CT160 would be better if you can afford it and if you are going to use it a lot to justify the cost.

John aka Dr John