Gold Lion AX7 in tube preamp

@glennewdick ,

Did they sound anything like I’m describing before full breakin? It would have to get pretty night and day better for me to be happy with them. 

If your talking 12ax7’s I believe they make one from Mexico and one from Russia. The Russians being the better of the 2 I’ve heard.  I had some Russian ones that came stock with an amp I bought. They were pretty good for new production.

They tend to share sonics with Telefunkens not as good but resemble each other. When I pulled the gold lions and put in the Telefunkens that’s when you see the big difference. First thing I noticed was sound stage then how much more natural the Telefunkens were and I’ve never thought of Teles being relaxed and natural. 
 

You really notice a difference when you compare the GL to the Mazda, mullards, RCA’s, Tungsram and others but you would expect this comparing new production to vintage. For a new tube I think they are pretty good but there not cheap either. You can buy used vintage 12ax7 that test new for the price of the Gold Lion.

What tube preamp are you using?

I have purchased a number of new tubes, especially 12ax7, 5751, el34 and kt77 and have to say that by the end of the listening session they were pretty much sounding as they were going to.

Once purchased a set of relatively inexpensive 12ax7s based on a recommendation by a member here.  They sounded bad when first used and stayed that way.

@yogiboy 

Using a Jolida Fusion preamp with some upgrades into a Benchmark AHB2.