Ray Tubes

Ray Tubes Select 5U4

$92.00
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The Ray Tubes SELECT 5U4 helps create a sonic profile that is smooth on top, full through the midrange, and grounded in natural, unforced bass. Its contribution is subtle but essential, enhancing the musicality, depth, and coherence of any tube-based system.

Tube: 5U4

The 5U4 is a common full-wave rectifier tube used in power supplies to convert alternating current to direct current in. Its twin-diode design uses a shared cathode and two anodes to convert both halves of the AC cycle. Rectifiers like the 5U4 are sometimes overlooked by audiophiles, but like power and signal tubes, they can greatly influence the sound of a tube amplifier.

The SELECT 5U4 helps create a sonic profile that is smooth on top, full through the midrange, and grounded in natural, unforced bass. Its contribution is subtle but essential, enhancing the musicality, depth, and coherence of any tube-based system.

  • The bass is characterized by composure and textural integrity, with
    excellent rhythm stability integrating seamlessly into the soundstage.
  • The midrange frequencies impart a sense of richness and organic flow.
    The SELECT 5U4ʼs inherent smoothness allows instruments like piano,
    guitar, and saxophone to show their warmth and clarity.
  • The treble performance is smooth and refined, reducing the grain and
    edginess often associated with more aggressive rectifiers.

The Ray Tubes Story

RayTubes was created to supply the audiophile and hi-fi market with high-quality, new-production vacuum tubes designed specifically for audio equipment. The company partners with manufacturers to create tubes to their specifications, subjects them to a rigorous quality control process that includes listening tests by sound engineers, and offers them through various partners and retailers like Tweek Geek.

With a twelve-month warranty covering tubes against manufacturing defects, weʼll take care of you during the first year of their ownership.

The Select Series

Premium SELECT tubes are manufactured and tested to meet a higher tolerance standard, and will provide superior and more nuanced sound than tubes from the CORE collection. Only the best tubes from any manufacturing batch will ever emerge from the factory, and the SELECT tubes are the cream of the crop of any given batch. SELECT tubes are not only tested for their superiority, but placed in amplifiers and listened to under real world conditions by audio engineers.

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Product Highlights

  • Hand-selected and tested (Only 4% of the tubes commissioned for production meet their standards for gain and conductance matching)
  • Gold pins for oxidation resistance
  • Low noise and microphonics 
  • 12-month warranty against manufacturing defects