Help with 6922 Valves

[The Black Adder]

Hello all.

I have a Raysonic CD 128 of which is an amazing bit of kit, if you have not heard one then try and do so, I am well impressed!

Being as curious as I am I was wondering if anyone could give me some information about doing a bit of rolling with the quartet of 6922 valves it currently has in place?

The stock valves are Electro Harmonix and after reading up on them a lot of people prefer Mullards.

So my questions are:-

Which Mullards would be best?
Are they the matched paired E88CC tubes?
Gold pins = better?
How much would 4 matched pairs be?
Where is the best place to buy them?

Hope someone can help
Many thanks
___
TBA

[jandl100]

Mullards? Yup, good. And tbh those EH will sound a bit sad and inadequate in comparison.

Don't necessarily restrict yourself to Mullards though, I'm having excellent results with some NOS Amperex - I preferred them in my Graaf amp to Mullard and Telefunken. Very much horses for courses with valves - which is best depends on the circuit you put them in. But I'd be pretty damn sure that they would all be a significant improvement on the EH. Def worth trying a few different types!

[The Black Adder]

Where is the best place to buy NOS matched valves like Mullards, Amperex etc Jerry?

Cheese

[jandl100]

Dunno - I usually get mine on eBay!

6922/ecc88/6DJ8 ... I'd loan you some but I don't have 4 of anything. Pairs of Mullard, Telefunken no problem./ But not quads.

Here's a reccie that will likely get me shot down in flames by the valve gurus here ... I'd strongly recommend you try some pcc88 valves - 7DJ8 instead of 6DJ8.

Even the cheapo pcc88 will often outperform quite exotic ecc88 valves ime, and I've not come across an application where they haven't worked fine as a drop-in replacement for an ecc88. And yes, I've tried quite a few.

[Spectral Morn]

Where is the best place to buy NOS matched valves like Mullards, Amperex etc Jerry?

Cheese

As an option you could ring Ian Large at Alium Audio, he has a pretty big selection of NOS and new production valves. Really nice guy too imho/e


Regards D S D L

[The Black Adder]

Cheers Neil.

I'll take a look. Does the type of Getter make a difference in experience?

Cheers

[The Grand Wazoo]

Don't get too hung up on finding matched pairs for small signal valves - especially dual triodes.

[Marco]

Where is the best place to buy NOS matched valves like Mullards, Amperex etc Jerry?

Cheese

Hi Joe,

IME, Watford valves are excellent in that respect with new valves. They also do it with NOS, but you need to phone up for that. Some others recently have also recommended Hot Rox:

http://www.hotroxuk.com/matched-valv...6l6-909-0.html

Marco.

[Barry]

Dunno - I usually get mine on eBay!

6922/ecc88/6DJ8 ... I'd loan you some but I don't have 4 of anything. Pairs of Mullard, Telefunken no problem./ But not quads.

Here's a reccie that will likely get me shot down in flames by the valve gurus here ... I'd strongly recommend you try some pcc88 valves - 7DJ8 instead of 6DJ8.

Even the cheapo pcc88 will often outperform quite exotic ecc88 valves ime, and I've not come across an application where they haven't worked fine as a drop-in replacement for an ecc88. And yes, I've tried quite a few.

Not going to shoot you down Jerry, but I'd like to make a couple of points concerning the PCC88.

Electrically it is identical to the ECC88, save for the heater voltage which is 7V. The PCC88 was designed for TV use, where the valves use a constant current 300mA heater; the idea being that they were connected in series and directly connected across the 240V mains via a dropping resistor.

Using a PCC88 in place of an ECC88, means that the heater of the PCC88 will be running at 10% under voltage. This is on the limit of under running heaters, any less cathode 'poisoning' can occur.

Joe, I can recommend The Chelmer Valve Company for valves. They can supply specific makes and will match pairs for you. I have bought several valves from them, including Mullard E88CCs - they are just up the road from me!

Regards

[The Black Adder]

Hmm.. interersting stuff.

I'm a newbie to tubes so thanks all for the info.

Cheers Barry, I think I'll give them a ring. Cheers Neil. Do you know if type of Getter makes a difference? - Just curious.

Cheers
Joe