6H30 replacement

Contact Andy at Vintage Tube Services. Also, Upscale Audio has Electo - Harmonix Gold Pin tubes and Softek. You can call there too.

Tomic:

I auditioned the ARC/BAT 6922 VS 6h30 preamps in 2002 I think (10 years before your model was manufactured).

This said, I preferred the older 12ax7 ARC based models to the (now old) 6922 based models.

Most of those present @ the audition were ARC owners and what I gathered was that also preferred the 6922 units to the then new 6h30 model.

I have not listened to ARC since then with the exception of an SP3a around 2010, or so.

Anyway, in my post I did not intend to diss your later model REF5se (which I have not heard, but most likely would not like;-).

DeKay

Personally I think the 6h30 is a fantastic tube. In the ARC Reference 6, they sound neither exactly like traditional tubes nor solid-state, but actually sound more "right" than either (including excellent tubes like 6SN7 and 6922). Rogue Audio’s old top 6h30 preamps, Athena and Hera, have some similar sonic qualities to the Ref 6, just not as good overall. If I heard a 6h30 based component that didn’t sound excellent, my inclination would be that the stuff around the tubes is at fault. But perhaps I am just so positively biased towards this tube. I think it’s great!

I don’t have experience with the DR version, but have used sets of both the modern Sovtek and EH gold pins over the years - they’re extremely close in sound, and like Kevin of Upscale advises, "don’t stress over the difference". If you don’t like your gear with one version, you probably won’t like it with the other. If I have to order a replacement set tomorrow, it's literally 50/50 which I'll choose. 

When a relay switches and agitates a 6h30 it makes a "ping-tassshhhhhhhhh" sound like no other tube, that feels like audiophile home to me 😂

In the ARC Reference 6, they sound neither exactly like traditional tubes nor solid-state, but actually sound more "right" than either (including excellent tubes like 6SN7 and 6922).

As I said, I think AR have found a way of voicing their amps to sound fine without resorting to megabuck NOS variants of the 6H30. It would be marketing suicide if they produced amps which sounded like cr** unless the supplied tubes were replaced with vintage candy.

It might suit Victor’s business interests to do the opposite. Who knows ?

@pesky_wabbit said "It might suit Victor’s business interests to do the opposite. Who knows ?"

I think when Victor had the company, the DR variant was more readily obtainable. He had a pretty good stash too. (My most recent NOS quad of DR 6h30s were originally supplied by him to a former BAT owner). 

I was a long time ARC owner/user from the early '70s until around 1990. I liked the brand, the fact that they delivered modern tube sound and supported it. The newer stuff is different and in some ways better but it is not euphonic at all. In fact, it is the perfect example of how modern tube designs and good solid state have converged. 

The Veloce I use is an oddball and sadly, no longer marketed although Vytas, the designer,  has supported it. It really pronounces the difference among the types of 6h30. His prior version, which I heard in my system and did not feel compelled to buy, used a combination of 12ax7 and 12au7. I gather than Vytas found the 6h30 better -- though he certainly didn't offer it with DR tubes. If ARC sounds good with the Sovtek or EH, that's a bonus. Unfortunately I can hear a marked difference with the vintage DR in my system- more ambience, more body, more air. Perhaps that's a shortcoming of the design, depending as it does on a now rare tube. 

We are in a funny place as tube audiophiles, given that the old classic tubes are very hard to find as true never used NOS. I don't want to go on my usual rant about "pulls" but will tell you that having used many so-called NOS Tele 12ax7s in my Lamm ML2, the amps are far more stable in terms of bias using truly never used old 12ax7s (which I found after a wait and/or paying the tariff for true NOS).