So, what music are you listening to now?

[BlueStreak]

Clapton---Slowhand

[icenine]

Moody Blues The Other Side Of Life

Cat Power "Manhattan"

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on HBO.

Public Enemy? Yeh, mutha****a Fight the power!

[BlueStreak]

Rimsky-Korsakov---Scheherazade

200 gram Super Analog Lp.

Been rolling tubes through my new Pro-Ject Phono Box S.

I have;
Tung-Sol Russian reissuse 12AX7
NEC 12AD7
RCA 7025
Sylvania 7025
And the weird looking Pro-Ject branded 12AX7 that came with it.

They all sound nice, but;

I've decided on the Russian Tung-Sols for now. Very nice full bodied tube and it's a very strong, matched pair.

The NECs come in second. They have the Mullard seams, so I believe these are the "Matsushita made on Mullard tooling" variety. They are DEAD quiet and have a beautiful sparkley sweet top end. A little lean in the bass compared to the Tung-Sols, however.

The RCAs and Sylvanias are great sounding tubes, but each pair has one tube slightly stronger than the other, causing an annoying channel imbalance. My home brewed passive preamp has no "balance" control, so....................

The NECs, RCAs and Syls are all pulls from wasted tape decks.

I have no idea who made the tubes this thing came with. They have very short plates and a ring getter stacked above of what looks like a tin-foil disc. Not a bad sounding tube at all, kinda "neutral" I'd say.

Dave

[Rajoo]

Evening of music continues...
Old Union - Motels and Highways
Afghan Whigs - 1965

[icenine]

I can never tell the difference on the driver tubes...I put in an actual Mullard 12ax7 from Blackburn UK in my Jolida tonight....I had tried an old Telefunken from a Fisher 400 but it was strange only one channel worked with that...what causes that?

Now I can tell the difference on the sound between different types of tubes.....I have heard the 7868 and to me it sounds the best, and the 6BQ5 is different from the 6V6. But I have trouble hearing the difference between the same tubes when I roll them. I know this is like a major tube amp sacrilege to say but tube rolling to me is like monster rca cables lol......ok you can ban me now.

Dave can u just drop in an 8BQ5 for a 6BQ5? is it safe? Some crazy guy bought some on bartertown for his maggie lol

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by icenine

I can never tell the difference on the driver tubes...I put in an actual Mullard 12ax7 from Blackburn UK in my Jolida tonight....I had tried an old Telefunken from a Fisher 400 but it was strange only one channel worked with that...what causes that?

Now I can tell the difference on the sound between different types of tubes.....I have heard the 7868 and to me it sounds the best, and the 6BQ5 is different from the 6V6. But I have trouble hearing the difference between the same tubes when I roll them. I know this is like a major tube amp sacrilege to say but tube rolling to me is like monster rca cables lol......ok you can ban me now.

Dave can u just drop in an 8BQ5 for a 6BQ5? is it safe? Some crazy guy bought some on bartertown for his maggie lol

The 12a_7 is a "Twin Triode". Basically, two circuits in one tube. One side goes bad, filament burns out, grid burns out, whatever. That's how come some designs can use one driver for both sides of a stereo amp. (Bottlehead Crack comes to mind.)

Yes, they are the same tube, but with a slightly higher voltage rating for the filament, 8 volt vs. 6 volt potential. You can put an 8BQ5 in a 6BQ5 socket, but I wouldn't recommend doing the opposite.

Tubes from different manufacturers often use different parts and/or materials than others. Long plates vs. short plates, grey plates, black plates, the rare chrome plates, steel rods, copper rods, round getters, square getters, horseshoe getters, bottom getters, side getters, top getters, different plate coatings..............The list goes on and on. Each of these things can leave a unique sonic signature.

My two favorite tubes at the moment are the Mullard 6EU7 (Driver) which sounds spectacular in my Maggie and the RCA 6AS7G (Power tube) which is amazing in my BH Crack.

Dave

[icenine]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

The 12a_7 is a "Twin Triode". Basically, two circuits in one tube. One side goes bad, filament burns out, grid burns out, whatever. That's how come some designs can use one driver for both sides of a stereo amp. (Bottlehead Crack comes to mind.)

Yes, they are the same tube, but with a slightly higher voltage rating for the filament, 8 volt vs. 6 volt potential. You can put an 8BQ5 in a 6BQ5 socket, but I wouldn't recommend doing the opposite.

Tubes from different manufacturers often use different parts and/or materials than others. Long plates vs. short plates, grey plates, black plates, the rare chrome plates, steel rods, copper rods, round getters, square getters, horseshoe getters, bottom getters, side getters, top getters, different plate coatings..............The list goes on and on. Each of these things can leave a unique sonic signature.

My two favorite tubes at the moment are the Mullard 6EU7 (Driver) which sounds spectacular in my Maggie and the RCA 6AS7G (Power tube) which is amazing in my BH Crack.

Dave

thanks for the info! I was worried I thought I had lost a channel on the Jolida....I am going to buy some 8BQ5 s for that ....they should be cheap since I have to bias each tube so I dont need a matched quad. Right now I am using the Russian 6P14s in the Jolida.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by icenine

thanks for the info! I was worried I thought I had lost a channel on the Jolida....I am going to buy some 8BQ5 s for that ....they should be cheap since I have to bias each tube so I dont need a matched quad. Right now I am using the Russian 6P14s in the Jolida.

Those Russians are pretty sweet too, Man. I have two sets of those and use them when I crave a somewhat brighter sound. The best part is they are dirt cheap.

Dave

[BlueStreak]

Oh, and if you're buying them from Bryce, he will match them anyways. He's just a meticulous guy. But, don't worry, the price is the same either way.

Dave