Luck of the draw.

Complete luck of the draw. The general consensus was ITT tends to be a bit more noisy than L3 tubes - with some current autogated L3 tubes being dead silent. But really, it varies from tube to tube.

I've had tubes I thought weren't gated turn out to be so.

The funny thing is, the tube (the one thundercactus is referencing) would always be humming, even when it was not gating, like a dentist was 2 doors down drilling a cavity, I was under the impression that the tubes are generally speaking, silent when not autogating.

Nope. If it hums, it'll always hum. Some hum louder when the gating kicks into high gear, but basically the power supply is always doing it's thing and making that sweet, sweet noise.

Autogated tubes are constantly gating when in use, its part of the function...

Ill tell brad to wrap his pvs14 with felt then lol

No, he needs acoustic paneling on his.



ALSO said tube that was humming, hums less audibly when their is MORE light

Also does anyone know what style of tube is in the night optics D300? Hoping its a "small anvis inverted"

It can be a small anvis, or a larger photonis anvis tube. Only way to really know is to open it up and inspect the contacts/measure the tube diameter. That diameter will dictate compatibility with mx10160 style housings.

99% sure it is a photonis, the optics in the D300 are causing it to fishbowl, nearly as bad as gen 1, the housing is essentially ruining an amazing tube. Looking to repot it.

Apparently the D300MS has used a PVS-5 MX9916UV tube but changed over to something else with the "ambia" line.

The housings are made by Dipol in Russia, so the HP could very well use a photonis tube. I would actually put my money on the supergen, since the 51-70lp/mm resolution correlates with that. Of course, resolution alone doesn't really mean crap.
I COULD open it up and check....

Canadian Tire nightvision doesn't hum. You guys are suckers buying PVS14's.

Tactical quietness 1, being able to see in the dark 0.

Quick PSA: Always check the contract and tube model to verify any tube you buy is the kind of tube you believe you are buying, if you can, we have 2 pvs-14s in Alberta that were sold as omni 7 tubes that are not omni 7 tubes, it is of no fault of the current seller as the tubes were sold to them as omni 7. You can easily check the serial on your pvs-14 by looking through the ocular lens at an angle or by simply removing the ocular lens.

example of serial number location:
http://s123.photobucket.com/user/n2o...a8bf0.jpg.html

Serial number is not important. Tube model, contract, and NSN are the important details here. I used to think OMNI contract mattered a lot, now I'm realising it doesn't really matter at all. Specs of the specific tube are what is important. My tube is OMNI VI, however the contract and tube minimum specifications are closer to OMNI VII minimums. I've looked through an OMNI VIII tube that had a min spec of 30 SNR and 72 lp/mm which is way above the OMNI VIII minimums.

This isnt about performance specs, although that is very true, franks omni 6 is amazing, and that is a good point and my mistake, you should be verifying the contract number and tube model, this is about false advertising, I can sell you a mitsibishi lancer with a souped up engine, body kit, redone interior, fat tires and some evo badges, it could be better then an actual evo X but its still not an evo, and I cant say its an evo when I sell it to you.