Tube for aesthetix pandora / romulus

I honestly wasn't trying to slight you KNG. Just trying to give OP another side of the story since he has no idea what he's doing. Has he been back to post yet? I'd love to hear his thoughts on this and which tubes he decides on using and why. Always interesting conversation over here.

Ctsooner, I'm just offering my .02 and participating in the discussion.

I spoke with designers of my tube components. They all encouraged tube rolling and not one emphatically insist design only works with any particular tube.

Ctsooner, Aesthetix uses the same brands of tubes for their regular and Signature series. The Signature tubes may be more carefully selected, but they are current production tubes from the same suppliers. I just had my Aesthetix Rhea upgraded and spoke to Jim White about this.

If you own Aesthetix products, and want to use NOS tubes, they will refer you to Vintage Tube Services, as I indicated in my prior post on this thread.

Has anyone tried 5751s, such as a pair of Sylvania triple mica black or gray plates, in lieu of 12AX7s in the Romulus or Pandora? 5751s will reduce gain by 30%, but shouldn't be an issue with digital.

The engineer who says tube rolling is rubbish does not have the best ears. Don't feel bad lots of engineers that design don't always have the best ears. Tube rolling is fun and can easily be heard. Try it you will like it. Brent Jesse, Andy at Vintage tube are both good. Don't feel bad about trying ebay. You will save money over the other two people. Make sure they give you at least 7 days to return them if there is a problem. Brent gives you 30 days to try and you can return them for other tubes even if you don't like the sound. I thinks this is great.

Thanks for the info guys. To clarify the engineer never said rubbish at all. This is what I posted:

I just had this tube rolling discussion with an audio engineer who is highly respected by this board who disagrees with MOST tube rolling for a variety of reasons. I don't know the specifics, but it deals with coatings being burned off in the beginning and folks hearing what they want to hear after that.

In the Rhea what would you change and with what to lower the noise floor? I know that it can be a bit noisy compared to great SS. I'll be running the XLR outputs into an Ayre AX5/20 which is DEAD quiet. I'd be interested....