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Conrad Johnson TEA2 Stock Tubes

Does anyone know what tubes are stock in the Conrad Johnson TEA2 phono preamp? I just bought this phono preamp new and was expecting to see three EH 12AX7 tubes but they look to be NOS tubes. They have no brand label except for ECC83 and flash at start up so they could be Mullards. I was going to replace the stock tubes with NOS tubes but that may not be necessary if the stock tubes are already Mullards.
mchd1
cjlover
20 posts
 
Not sure personally, but Ed at CJ service is always very
helpful and responds to emails pretty quickly. I have an
EV 1 and would love to hear what you think of the TEA2.
Happy Listening,
Rob
myles_b_astor's avatar
myles_b_astor
134 posts
 
Sorry to dash your hopes. They are some older Russian 12ax7s. The good news is that they are better IMHO than the newer reissue Tungsol 12ax7 being currently supplied. The only problem with the Russian tubes that I see is they are microphonic and can really go microphonic. But they are very quiet (cj selects for that) and that's a real plus if using lower output cartridges. Assume since you have 12ax7s, you didn't go for the transformer option. Neither did I in my TEA1bc.

Myles
mchd1 OP
93 posts
 
Thanks for the information. Ed at CJ said the tubes were new production Mullard copies made in Russia but the pins on the tubes that I have do not look like recent production so I must have the older production Russian 12AX7 tubes. Rob, I used to own the EV1 and sold it a couple of years ago because I wanted a phono preamp with more gain. The TEA2 sounds similar to the EV1 but has more gain. I have been using a Cary PH302 for the past two years and have been very happy with it. I can not decide if I like the TEA2 with the stock tubes or the Cary better. My hope is that some NOS Mullards will make the TEA2 a clear winner and I can sell the Cary. The rest of my system is CJ gear.
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