Aric Audio Super 2A3 owners - favorite tubes?


Hello all,

I've been enjoying my new set of Aric Audio amps (the Super 6SN7 linestage + Super 2A3 amp) and have been playing around with different tubes. I am curious what tubes anyone who owns either of these prefers.

I swapped from the stock 5U4GB to some NOS RCA 5U4Gs, but not sure if there's anything better out there that owners may prefer rectifier-wise. Asking Aric, he said GB or G works fine, but beyond that didn't offer any other alternatives as far as compatible tube options.

For my 2A3 tubes, I have a set of NOS Svetlana SV-2A3 (2C4C) and EML 2a3-S Meshplates and prefer the EMLs. The Svetlanas sound nice - they are a little more 'warm' sounding to me - but they lack the detail and wide holographic soundstage that the EMLs produce.

For the 6SN7 tubes on both the pre-amp and the amplifier (3 total), I've tried Sylvania JAN 6SN7GT VT-231 2 Hole Bad Boy, Black Plates an d NOS RCA JAN 5692 6SN7 (red base) tubes and prefer the Sylvania's by a mile. Swapping from the Sylvanias to the RCAs, bass thinned out quite a bit. Detail was great, and mid/highs were nice, but the Sylvanias are overall much nicer.

What have you tried and liked / tried and kept?

128x128mmcgill829
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@carlsbad2 Thanks. My amp is 2A3 only, so 300B is not going to work in it.

I'll check out the EML 5U4G though!

@tvad I'll keep an eye out for those!

@mmcgill829 don't be so sure.  the 300B 2.5V is designed to be used in 2A3 amps.  the ones I had were in my 2A3 amp.  They won't work in a 300b amp.

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@carlsbad2 oh interesting. I'll take a look at those. I didn't even realize that was a thing!

@tvad AFAIK 5U4G and 5U4 are one in the same. The G just refers to it being glass and the NOS G's tend to be the 'coke bottle' shape, with the GB being the straight bottles. Forgive me if I'm incorrect though. I currently have NOS RCA 5U4G (coke bottle) rectifiers in, which replaced the 5U4GBs that were in there stock (don't remember what they were off the top of my head though - nothing fancy).