Valve matching?

[swampdog]

[SIZE=3]Hi,

Being a newbie to the world of valves I Just need a bit of advice from any of you guys experienced in "tube rolling" so here goes:

I have just bought a valve integrated amp with the following set of tubes,

Quad set of Tung Sol Russia KT120,s, Mullard 12ax7 x2 Mullard 12au7 x3

I am considering buying a spare set of mullard 12ax7`s and 12au7`s but what I am curious to find out is what other make of valves seem to be a good match with Tung-sol :scratch: or would you stick with the Mullards?

Any recommendations would be much appreciated..... cheers:) :)

[Ali Tait]

Can't really say, depends on the amp and circuit. I'd say try a few different makes and see what you think. You can't go far wrong with Mullards though IMHO.

[swampdog]

Oh my....... Where`s valve guru Alanb when you need him.. :lol:

[SquireC]

I would suggest you could buy valves nowhere near as good as the mullards or Tung Sols'. If they sound good and give you the sound you want, stop thinking and listen to your sounds.
Avoid Chinese valves is the general rule ( due to reliability ).
IMHO

[swampdog]

Tube rolling is half the fun of owning a valve amp so I`m told...Its not that I don't like the sound of the Tung Sol`s and Mullards , I do, but it doesn't hurt
to experiment from time to time and you never know I may learn something in the process.

Thanks for the advice anyway Dave..... :thumbsup:

[julesd68]

Hi Paul, here's an article you might find interesting - I certainly found it useful ...

http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/d.pl?audio/faq/joes-tubes.html#12AX7

When tube rolling with my phono stage I have found that different tubes have made anything from a minimal to profound difference to the sound - it's really just about experimenting to see what combinations work for you.

Good luck with it!

[swampdog]

Hi Julian,

Many thanks for the input, friendly and constructive I must say. I will certainly check out the article later.

The way I see it is that we can learn valuable experience from experimenting and that is what I fully intend to do with valves but I thought
it may be nice to hear about fellow members experiences with tube rolling....

Again, thanks for the info, much appreciated... :)

[SLS]

I would suggest you could buy valves nowhere near as good as the mullards or Tung Sols'. If they sound good and give you the sound you want, stop thinking and listen to your sounds.
Avoid Chinese valves is the general rule ( due to reliability ).
IMHO

Avoid anything Chinese (due to reliability)

[SLS]

Incidentally, I found the answer is to buy an amp with tubes (300B-XLS) so expensive and made by so few companies (and those that do, mostly in the same factory) that tube rolling is not an option. And the amp is auto-bias so you don't need matched tubes.

[walpurgis]

Avoid anything Chinese (due to reliability)

Not my experience. I've had numerous Chinese Hi-Fi components with Chinese valves for long periods and never had a problem.

[SLS]

Slightly in jest. A lot of their manufactured goods are complete tosh, especially cars, but I'll credit their hand-made audio is OK, apparently, and I understand that European companies that manufacture over there tend to supervise production.

[swampdog]

I too have had numerous Chinese components over the years and have had no problems whatsoever.....

Its becoming clear by some of the replies I have had that AOS was perhaps not the right place to post as there seems to be a trend against tube rolling so I think I will just decide on a few brands and see what happens...

Many thanks to everyone who replied...much appreciated. Oh by the way Julian the Audio asylum article was "very" interesting and its my intention to implement some of the advice contained therein...cheers for that. :)

Mods can you please close this thread...thanks

[Ali Tait]

No trend against tube rolling here, quite the opposite I'd say. It can be much fun.

[walpurgis]

I too have had numerous Chinese components over the years and have had no problems whatsoever.....

Its becoming clear by some of the replies I have had that AOS was perhaps not the right place to post as there seems to be a trend against tube rolling so I think I will just decide on a few brands and see what happens...

Many thanks to everyone who replied...much appreciated. Oh by the way Julian the Audio asylum article was "very" interesting and its my intention to implement some of the advice contained therein...cheers for that. :)

Mods can you please close this thread...thanks

No need to close the thread Paul. Others may still wish to contribute. If not it will become history soon enough.

[julesd68]

Pleased you found the article useful Paul. A few more thoughts based on my recent experience - I think it's worth working out what you would like the tube rolling to achieve and then look at tubes with characteristics that fit the bill. When looking at user opinions of some tubes on-line you may find that you get very differing opinions since the tubes respond differently in different kit which is why you just need to bite the bullet and have a go sometimes. For me, I was looking to improve the bass performance and add to the dynamics of my vinyl playback. I could list all the tubes I've tried but it probably wouldn't be any help to you since your goals with tube rolling are likely to be different and your kit is also a very different beast to mine. Also, when buying used or NOS tubes, it's worth sticking to reputable on-line dealers or ebay sellers with a good returns policy, just in case you get a bad 'un. I only came a cropper once with a tube I bought on ebay that I didn't try for a while and turned out to be noisy on one channel - was too late to return it!

[SquireC]

Not my experience. I've had numerous Chinese Hi-Fi components with Chinese valves for long periods and never had a problem.

My valve amp was made in Cambridge and I know the guy that makes them. His experience is that while Chinese valves can sound as good as most other makes, their reliability ( vital for a manufacturer of amps) was/ is questionable. Experience of chinese valves literally exploding, obviously due to dubious manufacturing standards) so he supplied his amps with Russian Sovtek's and Edicron.

I have since tube rolled myself with Svetlana's and Mullards and the amp sounds better.

So I have to advise people to be wary of Chinese valves, particularly when there are 'better made and better sounding' valves available. Again IMHO ( and my amp builder friend's opinion).

Delighted you found some quality, reliable valves for yourself.