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Recommendations for rolling tubes on Luxman SQ-N10?

I've owned a Luxman SQ-N10 for a little over a year now, and if thought it's only 10W, with the way it's hooked up to high efficiency speakers, I'm very impressed with the amp. I'd like to play around with it a little and see if there might be any benefit in rolling some of the tubes that are on it.

From everything I've read online, most people only switched out the main 12AX7, and I've done so, replacing the stock with a psvane/shuguang. The sound is neutral and detailed for a tube integrated, but in comparing to a quality higher watt amp, it is just not getting the oomph in the way that I hoped. It's there for sure, but I just want a little more.

Have you rolled the tubes to get a chemistry that you like with this amp? If so, what are you using?
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nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,843 posts
 
Check out Brent Jessee's site, audio tubes. Just click on the tube you have and read his take on the stock he has (which is constantly updated). It's even broken down to price points. When you narrow it down, give him a call and see what he thinks and if he has anything new that hasn't been updated on his site. It can be your first and last stop for tubes and advice.

All the best,
Nonoise
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blisshifi OP
1,183 posts
 
Thanks Nonoise. I'm not really looking to see what different types of tubes there are out there, but rather, which ones have been tried out on this specific amp. More specifically, I'm wondering if there has been any benefit to rolling the EL84 tubes, as I haven't had much experience doing that with cathode biased amps. Most of my tube rolling experience has been with 12AX7 / ECC83 and 6DJ8.
nordicnorm
313 posts
 
You will hear a more noticeable improvement by changing out the ECC82 (12AU7) and ECC83 (12AX7) tubes than the EL84.

You’ll have a hard time finding someone else with your identical system. Someone with the same amp and tubes will sound completely different to yours. And if you’re using NOS tubes, there is a wide variation between batches of the same tube. All you can do is listen to the tube in your system and make a determination if you like it or not. That’s the maddening part of tube rolling - your mileage will always vary!

For ECC83/12AX7, my favourites are:
Shuguang Custom 12AX7 LS (black bottle)
Mazda Chrome Plate ECC83 (getting pricey now)
Telefunken ECC803S (very hard to find now, v. expensive with lots of fakes out there)

For ECC82/12AU7:
Psvane 12AU7-TII
Amperex BugleBoy 7316
GE Triple Mica Blackplate 5814A
Telefunken ECC802S (same caveat as the 803S’)
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blisshifi OP
1,183 posts
 
Thanks for the advice Nordicnorm. I did get good results with swapping the 12AX7 and tried a NOS Tele and Amperex and liked the Psvane the best. 

How did rolling the 82s shape the sound for you?
nordicnorm
313 posts
 
Can’t remember now. It’s been awhile since I’ve had an amp with ECC82 tubes. When I upgraded my speakers to Martin Logan Spires, their 40 W weren’t enough, so I upgraded to SS monoblocks (900 W @ 4 Ohms).

I only run tubes in my linestage preamp (6SN7) and phono stage (12AX7) currently.

In the preamp I have 2 x Shuguang Black Treasure CV181z and 2 x Sylvania 6SN7 GTB Chrome Domes, while in my phono stage I have 2 x Shuguang Custom 12AX7 LS. I keep swapping them out with Mazda tubes. On some recordings, the Shuguang have the edge while on others, the Mazda has a slight edge?

This tube rolling business can lead to madness... ;^)
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