Telefunken vacuum tube E88CC-TK; NOS versus brand new.
7DJ8 is another safe swap for the 6DJ8. There are NOS that can be found for sane(under $50) if you do a little hunting. Brent Jesse's inventory is spotty at the moment, but scroll to bottom-USA section http://www.audiotubes.com/6dj8.htm |
@orpheus10 you are welcome a few other comments: - we are in an era now, finally, where the russian and china tube makers are making very good quality and really excellent sounding products - they have been at this for 15-20 years now and they have their basic sourcing, production and qc processes pretty much in order (not to mention being savvy marketers scooping up the old dead brand names newbies read about and seek out)... so we as users can get input and power tubes that are easily the equal to old stock ones they are modeled after -- current tube makers are audiophiles with good ears too, and they are listening to what they are making... - so when you find modern stuff you like - like your tele-labeled 6dj8 tubes - note who the supplier is and how the tubes have been graded, and as you are, get a spare set to have - the problem with modern tube makers is how they sell their wares, especially their ’not-so-well’ qc’ed stuff... tube making is ultimately a make and sort process -- many bad ones are made with the good ones -- they are gonna blow that off quality stuff out to maximize their sales, and that’s why we need to be super careful about unknown ebay vendors or folks without sterling reputations selling certain tubes at surprisingly good prices - those should raise red flags right away - as good as they look and sound, what is unknown about today’s good, premium tubes is their durability and longevity - these tube makers are trying to maximize profit, and are still at a disadvantage when it comes to sourcing rare and pure metals that were used in the great tubes of old, what we see are tube makes going with more sturdy inner parts to help longevity despite using cheaper/more impure metals... we shall see about this cheers and happy listening |
Many years ago I compared several brands of 12AT7 type tubes. To my surprise, by far the best sounding was a Chinese made variant sold to me by Billington in the UK. Since Billington is now out of business, I don’t know where I would get more of them, if I needed them, but fortunately I do not need them. My point is, don’t sell Chinese made tubes short if SQ is the major criterion. (The Chinese 12AT7s didn’t last long in use. Second best in my experiment w 12AT7s were GE 5-star gold pins.) |
I recently rolled in a number of different NOS tubes to compare to the stock EH's that came in my amp and the stock Sovtek's that came in my preamp. The tubes include NOS Amperex PQ's, NOS Silvania Gold Brand, NOS Telefunken Smooth and Ribbed plates, NOS RCA Clear tops and the now unobtanium NOS 1963 GE long plates. While there are considerable differences between these tubes as to SQ, all of them sound to my ears superior in one way or another over the EH's, or the Sovtek's. YMMV. |
