6H30 tubes vs the others

thanks for the input, keep it coming. I’m seeing so far that it’s like any other tube in that some like the sound some don’t. Tube rollers would inherently stay away, because they can’t change the sound. I don’t plan to roll tubes, although I once said I wouldn’t get into tubes at all, now I’m very interested in trying them, so...

I have used 6922/6dj8 and variants with many older ARC preamps and never noticed microphonics. They were the “golden era’ of ARC Sonics IMO.

I buy from good sources on the internet.

I much prefer the large spectrum of tonal balance over 6h30 which sound very cold to me. You can tailor the sound to your own tube tastes very easy.

My first real tube preamp that I bought to pare with my Mac MC40 monoblocks was a Audio Research LS15 with 6922 tubes. I was really hoping to get some tube warmth from it as the MC40's don't have a lot. I tried rolling tubes and I got it a little better but never to my satisfaction.
I didn't want to stray from Audio Research because at least the LS15 showed me what there build quality was about and I really liked it.So I did a lot of research and knew that either a SP6 or an SP8 should fit me just fine as it uses 12AX7 tubes. After a few months of shopping around on all the usual sites I found a super clean and serviced SP8MkII just under 2 hours from me.
It adds just the right amount of warmth without going overboard and has great synergy with my Mac tube amps and Altec speakers.
During my research I had discovered that Audio Research had shifted the house sound when they switched to the 6922 tubes and Jfets. It had become more dry and clinical, very good at bringing out the most tiny details but not as much to my liking.
Not having heard the 6H30 tube based preamps they build I will reserve comment on them. Well, I have heard one, but it wasn't in my system unfortunately and the system is very different from mine.

BillWojo

Microphonics is the vibration of the tube’s glass, which introduces itself into the signal?
is that the purpose of the damper rings I see around some tubes? You’re saying it’s more of an issue on 6H30’s more than other tubes?

Microphonics has more to do with how the internal structure deals with vibration. It does come through the glass, but damping the glass does little if the tube is microphonic.

If you’ve been buying tubes from a manufacturer like ARC, the tubes are already hand-picked for low microphonics, which relates directly to their cost. I’m seeing this from a production point of view; when we buy 100 tubes at a time, its nice if you can use most of them. Some tubes (like the 6H30) simply have a higher rejection rate on account of microphonics.

To the OP an ARC in decent shape fairly priced is going to be very flippable for little to no loss if you don’t like it. I would strongly suggest good tubes from reputable sources - try RAM tubes for really tight grading