12AT7 tubes

EIs are not bad sounding tubes. No-one seems to have mentioned the Electro Harmonix tube either, although if pcied for low microphonics, is a very nice sounding tube, even if it is a newly manufactered tube.

Often the Chinese 12AT7 gets denigrated in discussions like this, but I thought it important to point some things out about them: They are very quiet- the most consistant that we have tested. In a phono section this can be a big deal. If also hand-picked for low microphonics, they can rival the sonics of NOS tubes quite easily. One time Albert shipped us his amplifiers, which had Telefunken 12AT7s in it, and we replaced them with the Chinese tube. To our surprise, the Chinese sounded a lot better! We then tested the Telefunken tubes and found that they were testing in the '?' range of the tube tester. Since then we have seen quite a few good-testing Mullards, Siemans and Amperex that got dusted by the lowly Chinese tube...

One thing is for sure- its to your best interest to make sure you are installing a good tube! Make sure that whatever you get can be returned if you are not satisfied!

Mullards are the best I have heard... Can change systems from nice to incredible.. Most of the time the gear is beyond the quality of the tube used in it and you would never need a 15 k piece of gear, just some real good and silent musical tubes out of the norm.

"Mullards are the best I have heard... Can change systems from nice to incredible"

Undertow, what's your definition of incredible? I ask because tube rolling seems to be a way for people to get the sound they "want". I have an AVA FetValve 550, which also uses the 12AT7. Frank van Alstine ships these amps with JJs and is quite insistent on using these tubes. I tried Ei and also borrowed a pair of Mullards, and found that (to my ears) Frank was right. Of course, all that may mean is that Frank and I agree on what the "right" sound is for that amp. I found the JJ 12AT7 to have the least "tube like" characteristics of the ones I tried. My goal is to not hear anything that would tell me that I'm listening to either tubes or SS (FetValve is a hybrid).

Well I guess exactly what you said, they sound warmer which counteracts the steril newer stuff most the time. Very detailed, deep quiet, bass is all there.. And they normally run dead silent in comparison to all other tubes I have had.. Yes JJ's actually are one of the better new tubes, I had them and found them nice, they hummed a little, most of the mullards were a little pricey and matched, tested for microphonics and were all dead silent, literally with 101 db efficient speakers you would never know the units were on they are that dead quiet and always sound smooth,even in 60 db phono stages. Don't take as long to burn in, faster to warm up and sound right, normally about 20 mins and they are at most of the peak after about 50 hours first. Maybe I just like the character and consistent quality of the mullards, others have always given me problems and not always sounded the way I like. Thats all I can explain, however don't take my word, many, many people will consider mullards especially in the 12 series tubes some of the best, but maybe not if they don't work for you. Its up to you to try.

It takes all kinds, I guess. I've been living with all SS gear for the last 20 or so years (good stuff, though, not like a lot of the bleached stuff that you find a lot in the SS world). But with my move to the FetValve, and a Pass X1 preamp (which is not classically SS by any means) I've tried to find a good balance between these two worlds. So far the JJs do it for me, but if I run across a chance to get a nice pair of Mullards I may try them again.