Russian tube thread

[goraman]

I have had some experiences with Rusky valves and thought a thread may take some of the mystery and misconceptions out of buying experience.

I never liked the 6P14P- EV as they where strident and grainy in my amp.
I was told that that's because they where late 80's production after the cold war and that the 70's stuff is much better sounding.

I use the Reflector 6H30pi new production by Sovtek cryo treated by tubeman in my headphone amp now driven by Mullard M8100's but I just ordered some 1971 Vishods 6ZH1P-EV they are also in the EF-95 family and are well regarded but they haven't arived yet.
And my headphone amp just sounds great, better than the 1975 6H6pi I was using before the newer 6H30's .

This is a great little piece on EF-95 tubes.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/563884/litt...e#post_7625993

I think Russian tubes are often easily dismissed and after buying some Genulex Gold lion ECC83/B759 reissues for my DAC and I couldn't be happier.

I'm told there is no difference between todays 6H30 and the Super tubes of the 80's and some say even some of the 70's tubes where not much better.

I'm pretty pleased with my headphone amp and I think the 6H30PI is such a fantastic tube by design it's hard to go wrong.

I was told the Cryo treatment distresses the metal and makes it harder due to changing the temper and aligning the grain structure.
I believe it, as I have seen positive results in rifle barrels where group size has dropped from 1 inch to below less than half of that using the same match ammo, it reduces the number of patches it takes to clean the barrel and reduces barrel erosion from powder(much like a sand Blaster)
A 40XC went from a logged 5000 shots,to just over 8,000 shots with out being re chambered using the same match loads after a cryo treatment.
A match barrel is long and is usually cut down and rechamberd once so getting 3000 more shots each go around means 16,000 shots insted of 10,000 before a compleate re barrel, that is huge to a competitor.

So it dose have an effect on metal hardness.

[hal55]

I think you will love the Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV. I used them in my Little Dot Mk111, wonderful tubes.

Hal55

[goraman]

I think you will love the Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV. I used them in my Little Dot Mk111, wonderful tubes.

Hal55

Hal,
I have the same headphone amp, if yours is a later model like mine it will have V2 on the board,if so you can use the 6H30pi and they are a huge power tube upgrade.

It will be fun to see how the Vishkods compare to the Mulards a wonderful sounding tube in it's own right.

The Little Dot amp is one of the very best bargains in audio, it's quality is first rate mine has been wonderful, the power cord on it cost more than the amp but no one would guess that after a 3 min. listen.

[hal55]

Unfortunately i had to sell mine, plus some other bits and pieces, to fund a new preamp with remote control. It was a lovely unit, I'd have no hesitation recommending it, but I wasn't listening to headphones much and I still had a Tim DeParavicini designed headphone amp that I bought in the 80s and is still a fabulous unit. Not that the LD was inferior, just that one was valve, still mint and marketable whereas the other is a bit knocked around after 30+years and wouldn't have fetched much.
I have to acknowledge that LD is a great company to deal with. Mine was one of the very few units that arrived DOA. LD refunded all postage charges promptly, fixed the unit and had it back in wonderful working order quickly.
Just as an aside, I love the packaging on Voshkod tubes (the blue missile logo) and think how ironic it is that tubes made in the Cold War for the destruction of western civilization are now snapped up in the capitalist west and even Audio Research has used them.
Funny how things change.

Cheers,

Hal55

[goraman]

Ironic almost seems underrated .

[hoopsontoast]

Used the 6P15P-EV before in my old Decware, and will be using them again in the new one. Sounded great, nice and cheap!