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Orange Divo VT 1000 Valve Tube tester

It will be interesting to see what the impact is on secondhand values if, or when, new supplies become available. I'm assuming that this tester is manufactured in China..

I guess a worrying scenario for current owners would be the discontinuance of this product with presumably a lack of technical support / spare parts availability.
 
I hope it drives someone to develop a far more useful device than the Orange. Maybe there is a market for a good simple to use tester. The issue with the Orange is it is woefully limited in the valves it can test even in the guitar amp world (no rectifiers, no EF86 etc etc), and whilst it gives some vague indication of gain/triode matching it has no detail. I’d have thought with modern FPGA, Arduino, Raspberry Pi technology etc it should be possible to produce something of the usefulness of one of the large vintage AVOs but with a fraction of the complexity to the end-user. I like the select the valve type and press ‘go’ interface of the Orange, but there is no reason why it couldn’t have a much larger valve database and output vastly more detailed information about the valve under test. I have so many valves I want to test that I can’t on this thing, loads of 6AU6, 12AU6, E88CC, 6080 etc, and I’d like to be able to match pairs.
 
Yes, Tony,

Hopefully, one positive to taken from the soaring value of both new and old production valves is that it may act as a stimulus / incentive for current electronics manufacturers to develop and market a more universal tube tester. Given that a quad of NOS GEC KT88s now costs a grand or more , even a price tag of £2,000 for a new 'comprehensive' valve tester would seems pretty reasonable to some potential buyers.
 
Tony L said:
I hope it drives someone to develop a far more useful device than the Orange. Maybe there is a market for a good simple to use tester. The issue with the Orange is it is woefully limited in the valves it can test even in the guitar amp world (no rectifiers, no EF86 etc etc), and whilst it gives some vague indication of gain/triode matching it has no detail. I’d have thought with modern FPGA, Arduino, Raspberry Pi technology etc it should be possible to produce something of the usefulness of one of the large vintage AVOs but with a fraction of the complexity to the end-user. I like the select the valve type and press ‘go’ interface of the Orange, but there is no reason why it couldn’t have a much larger valve database and output vastly more detailed information about the valve under test. I have so many valves I want to test that I can’t on this thing, loads of 6AU6, 12AU6, E88CC, 6080 etc, and I’d like to be able to match pairs.
Click to expand...

I've got one that almost fits the bill - the Maxipreamp II https://maximatcher.com/product/maxipreamp-ii/ - it's not cheap at $989 but it is very flexible and they can build one that runs on 240V. My Dad lives in the US and bought me one over so avoided the import duty. It doesn't do every type of valve but has pretty good coverage. It's as simple as it gets to operate and also allows you to listen to valves to see if they are microphonic. It's streets ahead of the Orange which I've also owned, I can't fathom why the Orange units are going for so much money on eBay!
 
johnny nocash said:
Fu<k€r, I only got £640 for mine :confused:
Click to expand...
But that's what happens with eBay, people see an item sell for a high price, then they all add theirs, all it does is bring the price down. Best to wait until they sell, then add yours when there is none listed.

Same thing has happened with the Squeezebox Touch, Darko raved about them, price on ebay shot up to 2 and 3x the normal used price, now many aren't selling at the stupidly inflated asking price because the demand has dropped.
 
Tony L said:
I hope it drives someone to develop a far more useful device than the Orange. Maybe there is a market for a good simple to use tester. The issue with the Orange is it is woefully limited in the valves it can test even in the guitar amp world (no rectifiers, no EF86 etc etc), and whilst it gives some vague indication of gain/triode matching it has no detail. I’d have thought with modern FPGA, Arduino, Raspberry Pi technology etc it should be possible to produce something of the usefulness of one of the large vintage AVOs but with a fraction of the complexity to the end-user. I like the select the valve type and press ‘go’ interface of the Orange, but there is no reason why it couldn’t have a much larger valve database and output vastly more detailed information about the valve under test. I have so many valves I want to test that I can’t on this thing, loads of 6AU6, 12AU6, E88CC, 6080 etc, and I’d like to be able to match pairs.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. I can’t believe no one makes a good modern tester.
 
brecklandboy said:
It will be interesting to see what the impact is on secondhand values if, or when, new supplies become available. I'm assuming that this tester is manufactured in China..

I guess a worrying scenario for current owners would be the discontinuance of this product with presumably a lack of technical support / spare parts availability.
Click to expand...
I think that’s now happened.
 
brecklandboy said:
Yes, Tony,

Hopefully, one positive to taken from the soaring value of both new and old production valves is that it may act as a stimulus / incentive for current electronics manufacturers to develop and market a more universal tube tester. Given that a quad of NOS GEC KT88s now costs a grand or more , even a price tag of £2,000 for a new 'comprehensive' valve tester would seems pretty reasonable to some potential buyers.
Click to expand...
Sshh! Can we say £1000 :)
 
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