6H30 replacement

@tomic601 I like my seats in the middle center, maybe a touch forward than back, I like to feel the music and look at the musicians expressions. 

I will look at the 12AX7s, after this roll to my Telefunken 803s  and Electro-Harmonix 6H30Pi Gold Pin ARC from Upscale.

indeed jim...

one person’s bright and bleached is another person’s transparent and extended

one person’s luscious and romantic is another’s muddy and homogenized

one person’s lively and fast is another’s strident and zippy

this hobby is about defining and realizing one’s personal happiness with the music played, one’s own notion of ’just right’

Contact Andy at Vintage Tube Services. Also, Upscale Audio has Electo - Harmonix Gold Pin tubes and Softek. You can call there too.

Tomic:

I auditioned the ARC/BAT 6922 VS 6h30 preamps in 2002 I think (10 years before your model was manufactured).

This said, I preferred the older 12ax7 ARC based models to the (now old) 6922 based models.

Most of those present @ the audition were ARC owners and what I gathered was that also preferred the 6922 units to the then new 6h30 model.

I have not listened to ARC since then with the exception of an SP3a around 2010, or so.

Anyway, in my post I did not intend to diss your later model REF5se (which I have not heard, but most likely would not like;-).

DeKay

Personally I think the 6h30 is a fantastic tube. In the ARC Reference 6, they sound neither exactly like traditional tubes nor solid-state, but actually sound more "right" than either (including excellent tubes like 6SN7 and 6922). Rogue Audio’s old top 6h30 preamps, Athena and Hera, have some similar sonic qualities to the Ref 6, just not as good overall. If I heard a 6h30 based component that didn’t sound excellent, my inclination would be that the stuff around the tubes is at fault. But perhaps I am just so positively biased towards this tube. I think it’s great!

I don’t have experience with the DR version, but have used sets of both the modern Sovtek and EH gold pins over the years - they’re extremely close in sound, and like Kevin of Upscale advises, "don’t stress over the difference". If you don’t like your gear with one version, you probably won’t like it with the other. If I have to order a replacement set tomorrow, it's literally 50/50 which I'll choose. 

When a relay switches and agitates a 6h30 it makes a "ping-tassshhhhhhhhh" sound like no other tube, that feels like audiophile home to me 😂