Frank, here's an update for you:
I was fortunate to find a lightly used pair of Bendix 6900s within 5 miles of my front door. The seller agreed to let me try them on the condition that I could return them to him if I was not happy with the sound. Upon replacing the JAN Philips 5687s with the Bendix, any thought of returning them quickly vanished. From an already very quiet background, it is now even quieter. Voices (now) have a much more detailed, textured and richer quality a 3-dimentionality if you will. Lower mid-range is much fuller and layered than before. Bass response is also significantly improved. As with the mid/low-mids, bass has a fuller and richer presentation. As mentioned in my earlier post, changing the position of the damping rings on the tubes also allowed me to tune the tubes to my liking. The Bendix easily surpassed my expectations!
I was fortunate to find a lightly used pair of Bendix 6900s within 5 miles of my front door. The seller agreed to let me try them on the condition that I could return them to him if I was not happy with the sound. Upon replacing the JAN Philips 5687s with the Bendix, any thought of returning them quickly vanished. From an already very quiet background, it is now even quieter. Voices (now) have a much more detailed, textured and richer quality a 3-dimentionality if you will. Lower mid-range is much fuller and layered than before. Bass response is also significantly improved. As with the mid/low-mids, bass has a fuller and richer presentation. As mentioned in my earlier post, changing the position of the damping rings on the tubes also allowed me to tune the tubes to my liking. The Bendix easily surpassed my expectations!