For my Fosgate Sig phono-pre Musical Surroundings used to provide Chinese 6922 tubes whose principal quality was that they were especially quiet. The pre is all tube w/60db gain, no solid state, no SUT. The pre (while still great) has not been made or sold for a long time and those tubes are no longer available from MS. I keep looking for quieter and quieter, phono-pre quiet, 6922s at a good price. Any suggestions?
Telefunken vacuum tube E88CC-TK; NOS versus brand new.
Telefunken vacuum tube E88CC-TK; I just purchased a pair of these and they are fantastic; they raised my phono to a new level.
Now here's the question, I paid $60 apiece for a pair of these brand new. "Uncle Kevin" at Upscale Audio, sells these for $349. apiece. His are NOS, they should cost more, they also probably last longer, but do they sound better? That is the question. It is not in my budget to pay $700. to find out. Do you have any comments on this?
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@melm- Upscale Audio tests and rates their tubes for noise, as do some of the other tube mongers. Look for his, "Platinum" rating, for the quietest. https://upscaleaudio.com/pages/grading-matching Brent Jessee’s noise testing procedure, about half way down this page: http://www.audiotubes.com/6dj8.htm Can’t go wrong, with either of those sellers. |
"For my Fosgate Sig phono-pre Musical Surroundings used to provide Chinese 6922 tubes whose principal quality was that they were especially quiet. The pre is all tube w/60db gain, no solid state, no SUT. The pre (while still great) has not been made or sold for a long time and those tubes are no longer available from MS. I keep looking for quieter and quieter, phono-pre quiet, 6922s at a good price. Any suggestions?" melm- I have the Fosgate-version 2. If you want NOS, 7DJ8 as another alternative. They can be found at reasonable prices compared to other 6DJ8's. I use the Japanese Matsushita. Can't say I actually hear any improvement. According to the manual, the Foz himself says the 12ax7 in the V3 slot is the "money tube". Triode matching in both halves of the tube is important for that position, based on the manual. I just took a look at what the tube I use is going for. It used to go for half of what it is now, when I purchased them just a couple of years ago. Still less than some of the others. The new Russian tubes are probably fine, and reasonably priced. |
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