A few years ago I bought an ARC, SP9 mkll preamp. When I received it and hooked it up, I was very underwhelmed. Inside I found EH 6jd8 tubes. Long story short, I now have NOS Amperex PQ 6922’s from the 60’s and boy what a fabulous difference!
Tubes, cheese, wine and cognac
Perhaps, similar questions have been earlier be posted.
I cannot explain why old made tubes should sound better, do they really sound better than new made ones? Or are tubes similar to wine and cheese and need time to get better?
What kind of tools or knowledge was available in 50s, 60s and 70s that is not available?
(Can Egyptian pyramids be built now?)
I didn't try any NOS old made EL-34 tubes in my amp. So far, tried five different new made tubes , including Mullard, Gold Lion and Tang Sol Russian replicas. None of them have more than 10 hours or so. So far, Tang Sols are the best , Gold Lions, which were considerably more expensive are notably worse, Mullards sound the worst in my system. I didn't try Psvane yet, perhaps i will do that in near future. There are a few Chinese reissues, including UK El34 and El 34ph, the latter ones are twice more expensive. They put the tubes in nice boxes like chocolates and sell them more expensive.
But would NOS tubes sound much better?
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@niodari Unless the connection has gone open circuit, you will be able to compare the voltage on both channels. If there’s a difference, something is up. Measure across the resistor and from the tube pin to ground. |
For years I found pretty much all Gold Lion tubes (120w, 150s, 88s, 66s)to be amazingly good in a couple of different power amps, and the KT66s are my preferred tubes in my current fave tube amp, a SEP Dennis Had Firebottle HO (high output, such as it is). Both the Had amp and my Schiit Freya have 6SN7GTB tubes (one in the Had) and my faves are NOS GEs (relatively inexpensive as far as it goes) having tried lots of other brands. Vintage Amperex tubes are great also but harder to find. I have a drawer full of tubes to show for tuberism...tubism...tubophelia? The Had amp is currently resting as a Pass XA-25 is doing the amp work, and it requires far fewer tubes it seems but it still gets pretty hot so at least there's that. |
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