What are some favorite NOS 12AX7s for phono?

Check out Sophia's website for more info; they are located in Virgina I believe. Supposedly they go to the Chinese factory and cull-out the best testing 12AX7's as they come off the assembly line. They are a little pricey in my opinion but overall they are the best 12AX7 that I have run across. My Hovland eats phono tubes for lunch so I am replacing them quite often; gets a tab bit expensive. I am in the hunt now for an end-all top shelf tubed phono; I've tried the Audio Research Ref Phono 2 several times and it was very good. Looking at trying the EAR 912 also.

http://www.sophiaelectric.com/

And, I've had mixed results with the NOS 12AX7 Mullards; sometimes they are very good, other times they seem to go 'noisy' really quick. The Sophia's go noisy in my Hovalnd too but it takes significantly longer. The HP-100 does use a third tube in the phono, a 12AT7 and at the moment I am using a NOS Mullard there; best that I have found. Unfortunately, Sophia does not carry the 12AT7.

I've heard various 12AX7s and 5751s in my own phonostage (Viva Fono), and that of two friends (a Tron phonostage and Hovland HP200). The closest to a "universal" 12AX7 (sounds good in all applications) was the Amperex Bugle Boy. That delivers a warm sound, but is not overly muddy and lacking in speed and dynamics. The Mullards tended to be mixed bags--in some applications it sounded phasey and muddled. 5751s are also reasonably universal, though they have lower gain than 12AX7s (about 70% of the gain of a 12AX7).

The tube I settled on for my Viva Fono phonostage is the Telefunken ECC803S. This is NOT a universal tube. It is extremely fast, clear, dynamic and tight sounding -- probably too much so for most applications.

Larryi,

not to high-jack this forum, but what's your run-down on the basic differences between the three phonos that you mentioned above? I am looking for a replacement for my HP-100 which I love but is just not quiet enough. I've auditioned the AR Ref Phono 2 and thought that it was very good; big, bold, plenty of detail, and lots of what I call grunt; extremely quiet too... Have you ever auditioned the EAR 912; that's on my listen-too short list?

Stickman 451,

The Tron 7 is a very good stage for the money. I heard it with a Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge and an Ortofon Per Winfield cartridge. Noise was not an issue with either cartridge.

I heard the Hovland HP-200 with the Orpheus and a Lyra Titan. Noise was only an issue when the factory default loading was used. It turned out that the default setting is 100k (essentially unloaded) and the noise sounded like radio frequency interference. With more loading (lower numeric value) noise went away. The Hovland is a very decent phono/linestage sonically. My big issue is that I don't like stepped attenuators with a small number of steps--the "right" volume seems to always be between steps.

My Viva Fono is dead quiet and easily the best of these phonostages. It is vivid, harmonically dense and capable of throwing a huge soundstage. It has also become crazy expensive. The last I heard, it goes for somewhere around $16k. It is also not easy to make loading changes with the Viva. One has to open the case and solder resistors across the RCA input jack (primary side loading of the step up transformer) and that is a touch tricky given the small space and abundance of tiny wires nearby.

I haven't heard the EAR 912.

I know it appears that I only like tube-based phonostages. That is not the case. I think that one of the best stages I've ever heard is a Lyra Connoisseur. This is an extremely dynamic sounding phonostage that does not have the sort of mechanical sounding and artificial hardness to the attack of notes that is often found with solid state phonostages. It is too bad that it is no longer made (not that I could afford one of these).