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Upscale audio advice

I have been looking to change the tubes on my BAT VK-30 from the Russian made 6922/6h23 which work fine but am looking into upgrading them. I looked at the Upscale selection and a few options initially caught my eye. These are as follows:
1)Amperex 7308 vintage gold pin
2)Amperex 6DJ8/ECC88 Bugle Boy
3)Ediswan CV2492/6922
4)Mullard 2493/6922 & Mullard E188CC/7308

All of which, if I choose their Platinum grade, range from $70 to $110.00 each which seemed pretty reasonable to me. The problem is, their sales guys tells me that none of these are suitable for my Pre-amp. He goes on to tell me that the only units that will work are the very same 6H23's that I already have. Is this sound advice from them given the fact that I would like to spend some decent coin to upgrade or do they not wish to deal with me? I have seen in other forums that they tend to want to sell to customers who have purchased equipment from them. Is this true? I do want to change my tubes given the fact that they are about 5 yrs old and definately are due for a change. I find it hard to believe that the only option they have that will work with my VK-30 would be these cheaper $35.00 per tube units. Any further comments anybody may want to add to this or advice you may have for me?
vinylmad814
vinylmad814 OP
62 posts
 
Oh,
Thank you for all of your responses. If you have anything further to add please do so!!!!
high-desert-audio
18 posts
 
I have been buying from Kevin, the owner of Upscale Audio, for 15 years and he has always given me sound advise. He is one of the most knowledable tube guys in the business. If you were not talking with Kevin, perhaps putting in a call specifically to him would help clarify the issues you are trying to sort out. Upscale does have a policy of selling certain select tubes to customers who have purchased their tube equipment from them. However, they also have a large selection of tubes available to anyone.
daverz
487 posts
 
I'm using Genalex Gold Lion 6922 reissues in my 3iX. Pricey for a current production tube, but they have very nice "tone". I've tried some orange globe Amperex 6DJ8s, but otherwise haven't experimented much with NOS tubes in this pre-amp.
onemug
784 posts
 
I've been rolling 6922's in my CJ ART preamp for yrs. They came with EH's (6h23's). Decent tube but I found some I liked better. The JJ's had a nice tone and were very cheap but some would come to their end way too soon. I'm trying and liking the Genalex GL's a lot.

When I had a pre that only used a pair, my favorites were Amperex, Siemen and Mullard. If my ART didn't use 10 tubes total, I'd probably be using Amperex.

The JJ's or Gl's should give you a nice change from what you have and you can see if you like their tone.

FWIW: I don't know how "hard" BAT runs their tubes. the 6h23's are some of the most durable of this type.
djohnson54
396 posts
 
Vinyl, I got 4 Phillips platinum grade PCC88/7DJ8s (which are a direct replacement for 6922s) for $35 each and 2 Pope 6V6GTs at $49 each. The Pope 6V6GTs were at the suggestion of Kevin rather than the ones I had picked out (can't remember which ones now). The Phillips PCC88/7DJ8s were the ones he had to check his notes on. He thought he remembered a customer complaining they became noisy in their VK-3i but he still believed they would work. I can confirm that they work wonderfully in my preamp and they are NOT noisy. They also are not the high-dollar tubes you were apparently looking at. :) I'm very pleased for not much money ($238 plus shipping)! Dick
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