Gold Lion AX7 in tube preamp


Bought a set of these for my tube preamp thinking it might be a nice upgrade. It’s not. They seem to have very high gain and the frequency response is just bad. Vocals are very forward and if you turn things up it gets pretty piercing. I was thinking this would be a warmish preamp tube. What is the break in time and does it really make much difference? They probably have about 40-50 hours of preamp on time. I put the old Tungsols back in and all is good again. 

mofojo

 

For lower gain you can substitute a 5751 for the 12ax7 in many circuits.

 

I have a 12ax7 Tungsol in there right now and it’s sounds really good. I just thought the Gold Lion would be an upgrade. Bought from the Tube Depot. It’s says it’s a Russian one on the tubes. 

Mullard for the 12A7T tubes which are also new. Since they are just driver tubes I only swapped the Tungsols back in and everything was good again. It it safe to leave a tube preamp on for days at a time? I’m leaving for 4 days over the 4th and could let them cook in.