Electro Harmonix 6922 pre-amp tubes

I used the JJs in the Ars Sonum integrated where they present no reliability problems. If driving tubes hard is a problem, I would try the Russian 6H23s sold by Upscale Audio, they were recommended for the AI 3A and older CAT preamps which have a reputation for being hard on tubes (don't if that reputation is deserved or not).

Tom, FWIW I just finished playing with some EH's and Sovteks in my ARC SP10II as well as EH's and Sovteks in two different CDP's. Bottom line - IMHO of course - the Sovteks are more linear than the EH's but have no added warmth. The EH's can sound pretty good if you need some added sparkle and some more bass in an otherwise warmish system.

My re-introduction of my SP10II into my system caused me to change out the EH's from the Raysonic for a warmer tube, a Tesla 6922. And removal of Tesla's from a BAT DK5 and insertion of Sovteks as they were too warm. Two considerations must be made in valuing these comments. Both the ARC and the BAT use(d) Sovteks as OEM. The Raysonic used EH's.

Most folks don't care for the Sovteks that much, and if you don't need their 'ruggedness' as I do in my SP10, they will usually look for some good NOS Seimans or Tele's for clarity, linearity, and tone, or Amperex's if you want some warmth. But they are expensive and not easy to find.

Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks Newbee, From your description, think I will stick with the sovteks in my BAT phonostage.

I currently use the std EH 6922's in My Audio Research CA50 where they replaced the original Soveteks. To my ear they are slightly warmer than the Soveteks and still have the rugged reliability required in the ARC & Audible Illusions products. The JJ's sound wonderful but so far have cost me in the neighborhood of $400.00 in repairs after catastrophically failing in both the CA50 and my SP9MKIII. I did try the EH6922's in My SP9 as well but liked the warmer sound of some NOS Valvo 7DJ8's that I had in my stash as the SP9 can be rather sterile sounding with the wrong tubes. Good Luck.

Regards, Jerry

Tom, FWIW I just finished playing with the SP10 (aqain) today. I tried mixing some Sovteks and EH's in my SP10's line and phono stages. You can try putting some EH's in the critical stage and Sovteks in the non-critical stage of you BAT and see what happens. You might warm it up a tad w/out loosing the the clarity of the Sovteks. If that doesn't work try reversing them. A cheap experiment, especially if it works for you.