Anyone heard the Mullard 12AX7 reissue?

[hal55]

Difficult to find a review or opinion on the above tube, and many of the reviews are in the context of guitar amps. I want to replace the Shuguangs that are in my Yaqin 22B with something less dark and more musical with nice piano and strings rendition. Any comments on the Mullard reissues and do they in fact sound very similar to original Mullards?

Hal55

[Riislingen]

Hi Hal,

I´ve heard them. For re-issues and considering the price, they are not half bad at all. They have a very similar sonic flavour to them and generally compares quite well with the NOS variety.

Considering that, I´m not sure you will find that added clarity you are looking for using them.

Is NOS valves completely out of the question ? You could consider the re-issue Tung-Sols or even Sovtek LPS for added clarity, little noise and a pretty good timbre.

If it was me, I´d probably go find either Phillips Miniwatt, TFK or Valvo considering your sonic desires - all NOS types of course.

[Ali Tait]

Save up and buy some Mullards.

[synsei]

I feel rather foolish having to ask this but I guess I will have to bite the bullet if I want to learn: NOS ~ New Old Stock ... Scenario: Some old codger stumbles across a box of 'whatever' in his downstairs toilet and thinks, 'they'll sell well on ebay' et voila!!! Is that about the gist of it?

[MCRU]

I feel rather foolish having to ask this but I guess I will have to bite the bullet if I want to learn: NOS ~ New Old Stock ... Scenario: Some old codger stumbles across a box of 'whatever' in his downstairs toilet and thinks, 'they'll sell well on ebay' et voila!!! Is that about the gist of it?

no

you have a pc so use it chief, google is a great thing!

masses of info on valves

[goraman]

There are a lot of very good reissues.
The Genulex Gold Lion 12AX7 would fill the bill nicley.
For less money Tad makes very nice sounding 12AX7 all better than the Muullards.

[hal55]

This will be fun, there is a Youtube video comparing 12AX7s at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AFW2-zdSyY

Features a lot of the top contenders - JJs, Sovtek, Gold Lion, Mullard reissues etc. Will hook the laptop up to the DAC later and have a listen. Might be enough SQ to get a hint of how they sound.

Hal55

[worrasf]

Difficult to find a review or opinion on the above tube, and many of the reviews are in the context of guitar amps. I want to replace the Shuguangs that are in my Yaqin 22B with something less dark and more musical with nice piano and strings rendition. Any comments on the Mullard reissues and do they in fact sound very similar to original Mullards?

Hal55

Well after mucho tube rolling the "best" 12AX7 variants I have heard are NOS GE 5751 5 stars - slightly lower gain than the bog standard 12AX7 which suits me fine they are the most musical tubes and work wonderfully in the 25 RS I bought 2 very closely matched pairs from a seller in HK. Can also vouch for Philips miniwatt and Mazda ecc83' s if you want to go " less dark" - got a few pairs somewhere - for me TFK' s are too bright
Steve

[Ali Tait]

The problem is, lots of folk will tell you which valves sound best, but that only means what sounds best in the kit they have tried the valves in. The same valve will sound different in a different bit of kit - different circuit, different components, different operating points etc.

You really need to buy a few and try for yourself.

For me, the best are NOS Mullard and Amperex Bugle Boys.

[worrasf]

The problem is, lots of folk will tell you which valves sound best, but that only means what sounds best in the kit they have tried the valves in. The same valve will sound different in a different bit of kit - different circuit, different components, different operating points etc.

You really need to buy a few and try for yourself.
.