2. amps-preamps
  3. 193152-1301

12au7 tube?

Looking for a good 12au7 (JJ ecc802s currently). I know the Telefunken ECC802s is the holy grail, but it comes at a price that is just too steep for me to justify. Many will recommend Mullard, but I always find them a bit too "wooly", lacking in definition. They're going in a Mastersound 845 Compact.

 

What tubes would you recommend that fits between the clarity of the Telefunken (without the price...) and the Mullard? I don't mind spending a bit of money on a pair (let's say max $500 for the pair, prefer to be lower if at all possible).

audiojan
marco1's avatar
marco1
612 posts
 

@lowtubes there comes a time where tube life may actually exceed one’s own. Maybe a gruesome thought to some, but may as well face reality, lol. With the number of tubes I’ve collected over the years, I’ve decided to try listening to them rather than just collecting ‘em.  Kinda like money…can’t take it with ya.😵‍💫

lowtubes
136 posts
 

I don’t recommend people buying a lot of tubes as I e done but I think it’s fine to pick up 2 or 3 different pairs of well respected vintage tubes and hear which they prefer. But if someone is already happy with the tubes they’re using, then I don’t see a need to try something else.  I’ve always did the tube rolling thing because I was curious about the differences. But nowadays, if I get a new component in my home and if it sounds good with the existing tubes, I usually leave it alone. About a yr ago, I purchased a very large single ended tube amplifier that uses GE 805 tube driven my a 300b and some small GE 5751 tubes with a Amperex 12ax7.  All the tubes in the amplifier are vintage and to me, the amp sounded fine. So I left all the existing tubes in the amp and went on to purchasing many of the exact tubes as backups. I don’t like having such a big collection of tubes and that is gonna be my children’s problem when I die. I feel having tubes in stock is similar to having cables in stock. All these things are tweaks to perfect the ultimate sound. I have a decent collection of cables as well, Interconnects, power cables and speaker cables. I own about 5 tube testers and have about 15 tube amplifiers.  Not suggesting anyone go to this level as I know I’ve went too far.  

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,190 posts
 

@lowtubes

Man you’re speaking like a kindred soul here - I feel almost exactly the same way, and yeah, I also went way too far. On the plus side, my tube needs for life are easily filled. On the downside, it’s far too hard to liquidate these collections without a lot of give-aways and/or accepting pennies on the dollar. I'm just not into recouping funds 100 bucks at a time, for the effort involved here. So eventually, someone inherits the problem.

These days I spend less time tube rolling, because most vintage small tubes sound really good anyways, and your hearing just adapts to their nuances over time. If I want to change sonic flavors in a much more meaningful way, it’s easier to swap a cartridge or SUT (or components, or speakers).

Versus signal tubes, power tubes actually yield a more meaningful delta to shaping the sound IMO, but they’re mostly new (not vintage) and it’s pretty quick to hone in on which is the "right" choice for an amp. With small tubes you can easily get into a back-and-forth never ending hell trying to figure out which you actually like better.

marco1's avatar
marco1
612 posts
 

It’s nice to know we’re not too crazy despite what our better half will tell us.  

inna
7,923 posts
 

No, we are not, but still crazy enough.

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