MHDT Orchid TUBE ROLLING

here is my tube rolling experience w/ MHDT Orchid. (before & after mods by Grannyring)

Before mod:-

I had some OS 6SN7s laying around & NOS Tung Sol & Sylvania 2C51

Sylvania 2C51 sounded better...but not something I wanted to live with.

I got adapter from Garage1217....

Of all the 6sn7s..Sylvania Jan CHS 6sn7WGT was the best ...a bit flat, but something I can live with and enjoy the music.

But wanted to see if I can get better sound out of Orchid.   After talking with 2 people, who offer mods for Orchid, I decided to use Grannyring.   He was willing to tweak his mod to suite my music listening preference (cannot have bright sound at all)

After receiving the mod:-

1) The order of preference for 6Sn7s changed.

Tung-Sol UCn-CTL-6sn7wgta sounded better (more relaxed) than SYlvania.

2) Also the Sylvania 2C51 sounded much better.

almost seemed like the mod was specific to make 2C51 sound better.

So I tired the following 2C51/5670 family tubes

I have had experiences of using Vintage E88CC and have been demonstrated some of the Valves mentioned above in devices that I own.

As a result I have acquired a selection of early 60's E88CC's from different producers

One Tube not mentioned and very worthy of being trialed is the early 60's Mullard CV 2493, these are rare to find, even thought not too long ago there was a Matched Pair for sale in the USA, for very fair money, if compared to present UK prices.

I also recently heard on two separate occasions an early 60's German produced E88CC in a CDP and the impact it had made on the device and within the HiFi system was extremely impressive .

The second listening was with a Group of attendees who had at an earlier date, been demonstrated the CDP with the stock valves. The response from the additional attendees were no different to my own, they were in awe of the presentation on offer, and very clear about the valuable impression being made in their appraisals. 

I just want to say thanks to jjss49 for helping me find the right mix of tubes for my Istanbul and Blue Circle pre. His assessment of the REFLECTOR 6H23P-EB / 6922 (PREMIUM) was spot on and switching back to Amperex made all the difference. Great to have some solid advice from someone who's listened to a number of the different options. Saved me a ton of angst and painful discovery.