2. amps-preamps
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SLI-80 which 6SN7?

Sorry to start yet another SLI-80 thread, but I found no thread that covered my specific question.

I'm interested to know from Cary owners ( as well as 6SN7 lovers ) which 6SN7 is the best. I hear good things about the Sylvania, but there are many versions of this company. Including chrome dome, and brown base that I hear talk about. Also I see that Tung-Sol, GE, Raytheon, RCA are readily available. Also since these tubes are " one for each channel " do they need to be perfectly matched?

I'm also curious to know how much of a improvement the " signature " version adds to this amp. And how many versions are there?

thanks in advance!
theseeker
musicdoc
320 posts
 
had good luck myself with sylvania c1944 vt-231s--crisp, clear, musical without harshness. best inputs were siemens cca, fwiw.
woodman's avatar
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woodman
152 posts
 
Go to Vacuum Tube Valley [www.vacuumtube.com] and get the back issue number 11 from the spring of 1999. Most of this issue is about the 6SN7 and while parts of it are over my head, there is a very nice one page article which lists and rates over 20 6SN7 tubes. I have used a few differant Sylvania 6SN7s in my AES(cary) AE3 preamp and am very happy. They rate 3 differant Sylvania's and two differant Tung Sol's
Happy Listening
Woody
jazzdude
332 posts
 
I don't have a cary, but I do have a tube preamp with 6SN7's. Generally I have found that I prefer the 1940's era tubes over later iterations. I also prefer bottom-getter 6SN7's over top-getter types. There are 4 6SN7's in particular that I would recommend. 1) Sylvania VT-231 1940's, 2) Sylvania 6SN7GT tall-boy similar to VT-231 construction but with green lettering on the base, 3) Ken Rad 6SN7GT/VT-231 black-glass 1940's, 4) RCA 6SN7GT/VT-231 grey-glass 1940's.

Unless your preamp is a push/pull configuration there is no need for tube matching. Most "matched pairs" aren't really matched anyway.
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