Yamamoto Soundcraft / Teflon Sockets and parts 

           These tube sockets are unique in it's kind.  They are made of Teflon. This material  can not be die molded, and can only be machined from a solid block. The cost of raw Teflon blocks is very high, but it is the ultimate material for isolation. It doesn't get dirty because of the self-cleaning surface, and is resistant against ANY chemical influence.  Sockets are available for tubes like KT88, 300B, EL34, and for almost any tube ever made.


These sockets are made as precise as a watch.
This is leading technology by YAMAMOTO!
 About Gold plating of contacts:

Low cost industrial process: With  the gold plating process for  low cost products,  a layer of nickel is put on the material  first,  and after that  the gold plating is done.   The reason is,  a gold layer can not be put very well on metals like copper or bronze.  So, first they must put a nickel layer, and then the gold.   Also the nickel layer gives the nice shiny surface that  people like, and the manufacturers can make the layer very thin. So the gold-over-nickel technology is cheap, nice looking, and the most used.   What is generally not said, the gold layer is not pure, but holds less than 50% gold. Sometimes only 33%. It is this gold plating that has a very bright yellow color, more like brass.

Yamamoto process: For best Sound results, all Yamamoto's connecting devices are made completely nickel-free. All base materials are BRONZE. For best mechanical properties, first a silver layer is put on the bronze. Then over the silver plating a gold layer is applied. This will give the gold layer it's Yamamoto-typical opaque surface, with superior contact proportions, for better sound. Also you will notice the pin soldering is much easier to do. This gold plating with pure gold, will have the more deeper yellow color, which is typical for 24k gold.

About the Yamamoto contact pin material:

All contact pins are made of  a solid blocks  of  bronze, and are nickel free. They are CNC machined to get the shape they have.  With the Noval sockets, this needs a CNC machine that can also do parts for watches!

Contact bronze is a special alloy of mainly copper and zinc,  and it is superior to any other contact Material. It can only be tooled on  CNC machines, so is not used in commercial devices. 

The pins can be taken apart for cleaning or adjusting the pulling force.  Also with the very fine made 9 pin miniature socket.

 

Product overview


enlarge


enlarge

Mechanical drawing

Order Reference:
4Pin-YAM-UX4-Silver

or

4Pin-YAM-UX4-Gold
Yamamoto TEFLON UX4 Socket
Tubes like:
 300B, VV274A

Silver or Gold version

Yamamoto TEFLON UX4-UV4 Socket
GENIUS product!

This socket combines an UX4 socket with UV4 sockets. Why is that?  When you build a 205D amplifier, you can use the Fullmusic 205D, which has a UX4 socket.  Then later, just suppose you get the idea to try NOS 205D, these have an older type socket (UV4).  With this socket, all you need to do is rotate the tube 90°, and it will take both types.  There are many other interesting tube combinations possible with this socket. 

Gold version only

Mechanical drawing

UX5
Tubes like:
 27 ,67, etc.
Gold version only
  Mechanical drawing
UX6
Tubes like:
 301D 
Gold version only
B4/B5
For "Euro"1935  Tubes like 
PX25,  original old socket
Silver or Gold version

enlarge
UX4-B4
another GENIUS product!

This socket combines an UX4 socket with a B4 sockets.  I think this is even a more genius product than the UX4-UV4 (see above) .

There are two things you can do with this socket. 

1)  Use 4V and 5V rectifiers by just plug then in. 

Check here for how to connect 4V / 5V rectifiers
to the SAME socket.  This will work with every circuit diagram. No changes required. 

2) Use different voltage Triodes by just plug them in. 
PX25A,  300B.   Use a series resistor to get 4V.  No further change required to the circuit, only the filament series resistors.  Just plug in the right tube, and play.  Make sure you take the right series resistors,  they depend a bit on the transformer windings capability.
  300B 
Use 5V
transformer

Gold version only


enlarge


enlarge

mechanical drawing

Octal
Tubes like: EL34, KT88

Original 5 hole octal version available for octal rectifiers tubes.  The 5 hole socket is lower cost, but also prevents any normal tube to be plugged into the rectifier socket by mistake.

Silver or Gold version


enlarge

enlarge

mechanical drawing

Octal 8/5,  with 5 pin holes
For rectifier tubes like
5U4G / 274B

Gold version only


enlarge


enlarge

Loctal
Tubes like: C3g, C3m, ECH21 
Yamamoto is the only  manufacturer that makes these sockets today.

Gold version only

Mechanical drawing
9 PIN Magnoval
Tubes like:
EL504,  6D22, etc.

Only Gold Version

Mechanical drawing

9 PIN Noval
Tubes like:
ECC83, 12AU7, EL84
With  middle plate that can be connected to the chassis. This will reduce tube hum. 
Mechanical drawing

Gold version only

Mechanical drawing

 

This socket can be used as
socket protector too

9 PIN Noval
Tubes like:
ECC83, 12AU7, EL84
PCB VERSION
Gold version only
Mechanical drawing
10 PIN  for EL156
 
 

Gold version only

Mechanical drawing

8 PIN-AU8
1935 Tubes like:
AD1, AZ1

This shape can not be made by CNC machines, so this  socket was made from white ceramic

Gold version only

enlarge
enlarge
enlarge

 
4/7 PIN  for GM70
Tubes like:
Uljanov GM70

Very nice, flat construction. Saves (a lot of!)  space in your amplifier. 

Gold version only

 

 


Enlarge
 Bad type NOS Socket.
,Can not be used for 6C33

 


Enlarge
Good type NOS socket.
Can be used for 6C33
7 PIN  for 6C33

Also called "Septar" Socket 

Very nice, flat construction. Saves (a lot of!)  space in your amplifier. 

Gold version only

ATTENTION! Special note for 6C33. There is an important issue with 6C33 sockets, that DIY seem to know better than amplifier manufacturers, but still we repeat it here, for whom it concerns. Also dear manufacturers, and "designers" of expensive products ... feel FREE to read this ;)

The tube socket used for 6C33 is the "Septar" type, for transmitter tubes, and many tubes and sockets were made with this base. This is a universal tube base, for transmitter and other army tubes. There are two versions. One with cooling of the center pin, one without.

And yes, the 6C33 is a special tube, and it designed to get cooling from the tube socket, via the tube pins. So it means when you do not cool the tube pins, you can get problems of two kinds:

1) loss of vacuum quality, resulting in bias drift. This again will give thermal run away, and ends with a burned tube.

2) crack noises from older contacts.

To say it in other words: You can not use each tube socket with the 6C33, even if the tube fits it, it may be the wrong socket still, when it is not specifically designed to cool the tube. The low cost "fork" kind of contacts, with the steel springs on it, are nice electrical contacts, but provide no good heat conductance.

Now how can a tube base supply cooling? Well you know one tube pin is thicker than the others with 6C33. This thick pin will conduct considerable heat out of the tube. Also it will reduce the temperature of the Anode pin through the glass. This is the weak spot of the 6C33. The anode pin gets TOO HOT otherwise. To make cooling of the anode pin POSSIBLE, you have to use a special socket with good heat conduction. This will ONLY result from surface contacts of the type that touch the pin like a cylinder, plus of course the cylinder must be made of thick and heat conducting choice of metal. Like spring bronze or Titanium.

Remember at the wiring side, you need to use thick connection wires. Like use 2mm diameter bare silver, but also 2.5mm diameter copper (as from house installations) is a good heat conductor. If you use thin little wires, the cooling will not function of course.

What sockets can not be used? Basically these are the types with so called "fork" contacts. Another reason why these should not be used, is they can not handle the extreme filament current of the 6C33, and too low voltage on the actual tube pins itself will result.

The Yamamoto 6C33 sockets are made for the 6C33, and is features the thick contact pin of TITANIUM. This contact will get very hot, while guiding the heat out of the tube. For this reason the Titanium contact (for the thick pin) can not be gold plated, the gold would come off. So the thick pin will look gray, which is the color of Titanium. The other six contacts are normally gold plated.

Unfortunately choosing non-suitable sockets is often the reason for early 6C33 failures, that many are not aware of, and have no other choice as blame the tubes. Sometimes you can see very expensive OEM products, using lowest possible cost Chinese sockets. Very sad.

Specially with 6C33 NOS prices going up rapidly, choosing a heat conductive socket is a "must", when you intend a professional design job.

Mechanical drawing

4PIN-JUMBO
Tubes like:
845, 211, VT4C

Very nice, flat construction. Saves (a lot of!)  space in your amplifier. 

THIS IS THE ONLY NEW MADE
JUMBO SOCKET WITH 100% SATISFYING
CONTACT QUALITY.

Gold version only

YAMAMOTO Air ventilation adapter.

Fits all Yamamoto 35mm sockets. These are the types like UX4, B4, Octal, etc.

Dimensions: 58 x 58 x 3mm
Screw hole: 48mm distance / Diameter 4mm.
Chassis hole: 55mm diameter

High quality screw set is included! These are the crews for the Yamamoto Tube socket, and screws for chassis mounting of the Yamamoto Air Ventilation adapter.

RECOMMENDED way to use air ventilation adapter.

This is one possible way to use the Yamamoto Air Ventilation adapter. The Chassis dampers and tube socket need to be purchased separate, these are not supplied with the Yamamoto Air Ventilation adapter. This method give best vibration isolation you can get. If you know a better way, let us know!


enlarge

Teflon Audio Input / RCA Jack

Fully CNC machined part. Made from Teflon, Bronze, Silver, Gold and nothing else. These have nickel free contacts.  Each comes with four color rings, so you can color mark each connector the way you prefer.  

This part can be used for both symmetrical (XLR) or unsymmetrical (normal RCA ) inputs. For normal mounting, the inner Teflon isolator ring is not used. So the connector is grounded to the chassis like this. If you need symmetrical inputs, you apply both isolator rings.

They feature coaxial ground connections. Engineers will love this. If you do not want to take advantage of this, there is no need of course, and you can connect only the signal wire to the center pin (same as with low cost connectors). For improved shielding however, you can consider to connect a shielded coaxial cable to it, and then you can make a nice coaxial connection without having a shield leakage at the input connector. So the outside of the coaxial cable goes around the connector. In cases like this, the outside of the cable is connected to the connector only. At the other end where it goes into the amplifier, the shield is not connected. This provides ultimate shielding, and prevents ground loops.

Special note about the gold plating of those. These connectors are little diamonds, build with ultimate contact quality in mind. When you first see them, they look not morrir-shiny, and there are sometimes questions about this. For Audio Signals it is best to have nickel free contacts, to prevent whisker noise when the contacts get old. This means the whole construction and the plating must be nickel free. Perhaps as you know, a mirror shiny gold plating results only when a nickel layer is applied underneath, and also a non-pure gold layer, is used with low gold content. Since all Yamamoto parts are nickel-free, and use pure gold only, this can not be done on a mirror-shiny way. For best electrical results, a pure silver plating must be underneath. (Reason for this is to be found in the inter-metallic potential when two metals of different kind touch each other). This layer of pure silver however has an opaque surface. Over the silver, several gold layers are applied, which will adopt the opaque surface as well. So please be not mislead when you first see them, and notice the plating is not done mirror -shiny! This is done in purpose, for best contact results.


enlarge


enlarge

Tube shield

You MAY have noticed vintage tube shieldings look terrible. 
This one is made by Yamamoto standards, gold plated and CNC machined from a solid block of bronze.   These will give you much enhanced shielding due to their thickness.  Also they give acoustic decoupling from the environment, resulting is less microphonics. 


enlarge


enlarge

Teflon Solder lug
Model 1L5P / 2L5P

L= number of holes
P=number of pins

Teflon + Gold plated bronze, 
nickel-free


enlarge


enlarge

Complite Solder lug
Model 1L3P /  1L5P / 2L10P

Complite*  + Gold plated bronze, 
nickel-free

*Complite is specially treated wood.  It is hydraulically compressed under extreme pressure to get the air out, and then under vacuum the remaining air is replaced by phenol.  Like this,  properties are reached comparable to Bakelite.