Who loves tubes?

[Marco]

Hi Zenith,

NOS definitely rules, and I'm a Mullard fan myself. I like EL84 (and 34s) as they sound very sweet and detailed. I think my favourite Mullard is the 'coke bottle' shaped ECC32 - apart from the fact it sounds good it looks so cool, too!

I think for out-and-out audio performance though I love KT88s. Anytime I hear a KT88 amp it has real 'balls'. They might not have the same filigree detail and mellifluous qualities of some other valves but it they give music real impetus and drive, as well as solid deep bass, which I love

Marco.

[jandl100]

I've recently had some interesting experiences tube rolling some ECC83 / 12AX7 tubes in my EAR 802 pre-amp.

It came with CVC valves. Something was defo wrong - sound was a bit dark and closed in.

Step 1 - swapped the two CVC ECC83 for some ElectroHarmonix I happened to have lying around. Ooh - yes. We're on the right track here. Much better, sound opens out quite nicely.

Nice, but can I get better?

Step 2 - Of course ... some NOS Mullards! Wowwww. BGT. (Big Grin Time). Much more musical, fuller tonality, truckloads of detail. Woo-Hoo - can it get better than this?

Step 3 - well, I'd heard that some folks favour Telefunkens over Mullards, so I just had to try. Yup, this is it, the pinnacle! (So far). Even more transparent and open than the Mullards. Yeah, OK - a bit brighter, too, so may not suit every system. But for me the buck stops with the Telefunkens.

[Marco]

You have good ears, Jerry

That's exactly what I've heard, too. Telefunken 'long plates' are the best ECC83 I've heard so far. I use them in the Croft and the Yaqin to great effect. The brightness goes away in a couple of days leaving you with a very neutral, open, musical sound.

I've got to say that I've yet to be disappointed with NOS valves despite some people (Guy from Puresound, for example) saying they can be a bit hit and miss. Well not with me - every time I compare NOS valves with currently produced ones the sonic superiority of the NOS valves is crystal clear.

Marco.

[goraman]

In the 12AX7 class there are 2 tubes that sound great the Sovtek 12AX7LPS is well balanced and delivers slightly better bass than the telefunken but dosen't last as long.
The Ei silver long plate 12AX7 when hand selected for no microphonic noise is a direct sonic replacement for the more expencive Telefunkens but won't live 10,000 to 100,000 hrs.But they both will out live 5,000 hours or more and under $20.00 makes them a bargin.Some of the most expencive audio makers use these tubes along with hand selected Electro Harmonix. I use 1950 RCA winged black plates,1974 RCA black plates,Ei long silver plates and older hand select Electro Harmonics for my 12AT7's and found the RCA's to be the better sounding than even west German Telefunkens for this tube.

[Gromit]

I do - but whether I'd go back to them is open to debate. I had a fairly brief but nonetheless very enjoyable dabble with them last year by way of a hot-rodded KEL84 and a Puresound A30, itself given some very effective mods by Guy. Both sounded fabulous.

The A30 also received some better SN7's (Sylvania 'Bad Boys') which made a significant improvement, the KEL had some NOS Philips EL84's and Telefunken ECF80's (along with a smattering of BlackGates inside). I'd stick my neck out here and state that the KEL was probably the most musically-satisfying amplifier I've ever owned BUT it does need very efficient speakers to work at its best. My Audio Note AX2's at 90db/1w were border-line - the amp would easily run out of puff in the lower registers, even at relatively modest volume. Also running a valve amp for 7-8 hours a day (that's how much use my gear gets on average) soaks up a hell of a lot of juice in the electricity dept.

It's certainly a road I may travel down again though despite the above.

[Peter Stockwell]

I went through a brief valve phase, a KEL34 from world audio design. It did some things really well, notably bass and the mid range. I built it, mostly, myself but it did suffer from less than great soldering.

I migrated to Naim after that and haven't looked back.

However having just got a Technics SL1210 maybe I''ll be eating more humble pie soon

regards

Peter

[Mike]

I went through a brief valve phase, a KEL34 from world audio design.

You should try one of these then:

[Peter Stockwell]

You should try one of these then:

Can't see the link without a sign in.

I prefer the convenience of Solid State. Errr, I think.

regards

Peter

[Mike]

Hmmm.... piccy went AWOL!

Try this:


By Shian7 at 2008-06-17

[Gromit]

Hmmm.... piccy went AWOL!

Try this:


By Shian7 at 2008-06-17

Thats looks v nice WD 88VA single input version?

Something rather wonderful about how 88's and 6550's glow blue when photographed in low light. My old A30...