Preamp Deal of the Century

Hi Ecmlee. I wasn't aware that Mick had chosen the 6c4 in the chenin.My understanding is mick had implemented the common 6922/6dj8,s along with the 6j6 for phono gain in the new chenin .The 6c4 is no longer being produced so I would assume Mick has a supply of nos tubes.What brand of 6c4 is in yours? The 6c4 is 7 pin single triode or basically 1/2 of a 12au7 dual triode. He probably selected this tube for it's superior linearity over the common 12au7. The 12au7 and deratives are rather mediocre sounding valves for use in high end audio circuits[especially phono stages]. That said: The 6c4 is notorious for being microphonic. I have repaired a few guitar amps as well as some older organ amps that used a 6c4. I think that Conrad Johnson also used the 6c4 in a few of their earlier PV series preamps if I recall???? The euro equivalent would be an ec-90. Mullard made a box plate version called the m-8080, this is a good sounding tube. Other equivalents for rolling the 6c4 would be a 6135 or a 6100.Because the 6c4 is prone to be microphonic and had me pulling out my hair on more than 1 occasion[read too many]. Are you experiencing any microphonics? I found the 1980's GE 6c4[grey plate] the least microphonic and most consistent of the bunch, however I preferred the extension and tone of the mullard 8080. Conrad Johnson should have a good supply of selected 6c4's. Hope this helps. cheers and all the best.

I have 6c4's on my Chenin. The JAN Phillips that comes with stock is reasonable.

At present, I am using the M8080 Mullard tubes. Very quiet and I am not having any microphonic issues. I posted a while back about several 6C4 tubes I tried in the Supratek. Up to now, I am still convince that they are the "money" tubes on the phono section of the Chenin and not the 6922's. Although I am using a Telefunken on the 6922 position, my observation was that the 6C4 gives immediate feedback as to the tonal quality of the phono section when trying different varities. I rolled 6 pairs of different manufacturers of 6922's and I end up getting confused trying to identify if there's an improvement doing so. Maybe there was but I cannot comment on which was the best tube for me on this position from my experoment. Whereas the 6C4, as I said, the difference was immediate!

My recommendations as of today are (in order of being the "best" in my system) as follows:

Mullard M8080 (so far the best for me!)
Raytheon Triple Mica
National Union (looks like an RCA)Black Plates
RCA
Tungsol

What I found a waste of time are:

Motorola
Crosley
RCA Gray Plates
G.E. (maybe not the same type as Ecclectique is refering to)

My new Chardonnay will be arriving next week.
Can't wait to experience first hand what you guys have been saying all along.
Hey, we have the "Preamp Deal of the Century".
What would be your personal choice for "Amp Deal of the Century" and "Speaker Deal of the Century"?

Hi Ecclectique & Amandarae, thanks for your valuable input. I am going to get the Mullard CV4058 and try them out. My Chenin was stocked with RCA 6C4 and they are the only stock tubes remain on the unit. I have no idea of how the other 6C4 sounds so I am going to give a try. Frankly speaking how big is the difference betweem the 6C4 model and the later one using 6J6?

Thanks again!

Hi Gang. Ethifi.... congrats sir and let the chardonnay run in for a good couple of hundred hours before tube rolling. You will be impressed right out of the box. A couple of hundred hours of run in time allows the passive circuit parts,wire and the transformer windings to settle in. Amandadarae...a great system sir and I can see a lot of time and thought went into putting it together... always love to see another great vinyl rig too. After reading about your previous wright preamp I can almost hear the musical "voice" of your system....you have good ears sir. Regarding the GE 6c4...Any of other GE 6c4 versions were just awful except for the 80's vintage versions. I believe Conrad Johnson still have select stock of these in inventory. I have to say I was not too impressed with the tone of the Tung sol's[hard treble range] and never really tried the triple mica Raytheon as the mullard m8080 won hands down. Furthermore.... The circuits I was playing with [organ amps and guitar amps] could never be considered high resolution amplifying devices like that found in a good phono stage. I did dig out my previous notes I had made on this tube. I had spent some time voicing a friend's Conrad Johnson PV 14 back in the early 90's and came to the same conclusion.... The mullard m8080 wins hands down.I have kept records that date back to the early 70's regarding the tubes used for voicing my own equipment as well as the stuff I've repaired or modified. I am not surprised with your choice of the telefunken e88cc in the phono stage. No doubt you have had previous experience with this tube type.The telefunken and the seimen cca are the very best of that family and by a wide margin I might add. If that particular tube does not seem that critical in the supratek's phono stage [as indicated in your last post] others here that do not wish to pay the insane price's those tubes currently command... may want to try the nos russian military tube in it's place. The 6n23ev is a terrific tube for use in a phono stage. It is dead quiet, accurate, great bass resolution, extremely well balanced top to bottom and consistently has the tightest matched triode sections of any manufactured brand of this family of tube. "Note"... It is not to be confused with the icy glare of the current commercial Sovtec 6dj8/6922 now being used in just about every piece of modern amplifiacation. The 6n23ev's were developed strictly for the russian military and were not even known to exist until the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Big Red Machine. There are surplus stock of this tube floating around.They are very inexpensive relative to most nos examples. Search them out, you will be impressed.