Rolling Tubes

speakerman1

speakerman1

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Is it cost effective? You can shape the sound to your liking. Instead of buying new components. Driver tubes can get very expensive. But compared to buying a new amp it is a lot cheaper. There is only so much that can be done to SS. Cap and certain component changes. I tried a tube buffer and never heard a difference. At one time I thought rolling tubes were to expensive. Then I started thinking about the cost.

Larry
 
Rex Everything

Rex Everything

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It can get very expensive these days depending on how far you want to go with it.

I'm lucky to have a stash of small signal tubes to roll around but not a huge stash like some. My output rolling stash could be much larger though.

I general find something I like and just stop as it can go on and one and on and.......
 
speakerman1

speakerman1

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The winged Cs for the Carys was not cheap. The Electros I will try after these are burned in. Cary said after they biased the amps with the Cary tubes in sounded nice. They made no comment after they tried they Winged Cs. LOL I wonder why. LOL Do you think money was involved?

Larry

Not happy with them at the moment.
 
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speakerman1 said:
The winged Cs for the Carys was not cheap. The Electros I will try after these are burned in. Cary said after they biased the amps with the Cary tubes in sounded nice. They made no comment after they tried they Winged Cs. LOL I wonder why. LOL Do you think money was involved?

Larry

Not happy with them at the moment.
Click to expand...

Winged C are nice tubes. I have a stash of GE metal base 6550's all NOS and a quad of Penta Labs KT88's to try in my 6550/KT88 amps.

Wish I could find another pair of original Gold Lion KT88's that I could afford, to go with the pair I already have.

All these nice pairs of octal tubes I have with no other matched pairs is forcing me to look into building a cool pair of SE amps so I can hear all of these tubes finally.
 
speakerman1

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Some of the prices are just insane. I am liking the warmth of the Cs though. Haven't done a comparison though. Will be awhile before I shell out any more bucks for driver tubes.

Larry
 
ksrigg

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The Russian military tubes I have used have been OUTSTANDING. nI especially like the 6n3C-E. You gotta make use you are getting THAT tube though. A lot of people are subbing another similar tube which is not nearly as nice sounding in my opinion. I also like the OLD SED (can't remember the name) for EL34 tube...the KT90 from EI, especially the third version ......I think it was .............

For 7868 and 7591, EH makes the best, I think...

http://www.manleylabs.com/galleria/KT90.html

I REALLY LOVE the new Tung Sol KT-120 tube. It is awesome..

I think Electro Harmonix is doing a great job right now...the Chinese are catching up with their new, high dollar offerings....the cheap stuff is just that...

but nothing beats the vacuum tubes made during the heyday for tubes by about anyone making tubes....they are all wonderful.. especially the Mullards, the Bugle Boys, the Tungstrams, Sylvania, RCA, GE, helll if they made a tube, they put their all into it. No half baked bean counting compromised sh*$.

I really love the sound of tubes sometimes. They can be some warm and intaimate and just plain sweet.

I also love me some SS, especially the Phas Linear reborn...Nothing can beat it for power and finesse at the same time..just beautiful..

I would not want to choose just one format though. I love them both...but I do like for tubes to sound like tubes. a lot of the stuff today, and some of the rebuilds of classics seem to take the life out of the tube sound...making the amp sound almost like SS...not PLWO SS but other SS.


I'm just glad to be able to listen to both depending on my mood, the music, the format, etc...

It's really hard to beat an old unmolested Fisher 400 or 500 reciever with a nice pair of DIY speakers...

It's also impossible to beat a WOPL 400 or 700B which has been recreated by Mark or Lee combined with a nice pair of A-7 Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater...

Can't wait to build a nice subwoofer with a nice Lambda Acoustics 15" driver...just gotta decide what to use for power..plate amp, or Crown 300...gotta be a vented cabinet though..
 
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ksrigg said:
T I also like the OLD SED (can't remember the name) for EL34 tube...
Click to expand...

These are the Winged-C now and were the best new production EL34 around for years. I've not kept up with the EL34 market like I used to though so I'm out of the loop on the best new production EL34 these days.
 
speakerman1

speakerman1

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I had a quad set of Mullard EL 34s that were nice. I bought them when I received an amp with broken tubes. Sounded nice in the Chinese amp though.

Larry
 
speakerman1

speakerman1

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Well I found some RCA 12AU7 NOS in the box black plate. For a lot less than they go from the tube places. I got 4 for less than they want for 2. On the pre I'm not worried about matching. I got some RCA clear tops used for 25.00 4 of them. Which is a very good buy in my book.

Larry
 
Skratch

Skratch

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Larry, I bought a lot of old Dynaco St-70, Mark2 & 3's through the years when they were cheap and nobody realized the original tubes that came in them. I have gotten them with Genelex KT 88's in them for 200.00 for a pair of Mark3's. Also almost all of the old ST-70's had the old Blackburn Mullard EL-34's that when tested on my Hickok were almost like new. One pair of Mark3's had Amperex 6550 which Amperex never made a 6550, later found out they were Chinese copies. Also I tried telefunken 12AU7's which a lot of people raved about but they were no match for the RCA's IMHO
 
speakerman1

speakerman1

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I read alot about the tubes before I buy. I bought some Winged Cs 6550 for my Carys. I got these 12AU7s for a good deal. I have used the Mullard EL34s in a chinese amp. Didn't sound bad at all. I'm getting a small supply of tubes now. Still cost money to try something that you may not like. You never know though. LOL

Larry
 
speakerman1

speakerman1

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Just rolled the Shanling tubes. Letting them get nice and warm. See what difference I get. Not a lot of choices on this tube. I swapped the Chinese tubes with GE NOS. Please don't ask the number. LOL

Larry
 
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