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In Reply to: RE: OTO Phono SE 9 tubes or 10? posted by RGA on May 26, 2008 at 13:39:20:
RGA,
It wasn't really a recommendation for the best Oto tubes, but just some comments regarding Mike's mentioning the Sovtek and JJ EL84's. My mention of the RCA 5963 blackplate was because I found it a particularly luscious sounding tube and thought Mike might be interested in hearing about it. I don't feel I've tried enough different tubes in the Oto to be able to make any definite recommendation, but was just telling a few experiences relevant to Mike's posts.
What I can say in regard to your re-tubing, is it really depends on your objective.
If you're happy with the sound you had when your tubes were new but have noticed a degradation in the sound quality, and would like to get back to optimum with a minimal expenditure, then you probably only need to replace your EL-84's with the identical pieces, and possibly the two ECC83 drivers and less possibly the ECC82 preamp tube. I've found that in general the small signal tubes last a lot longer than the power tubes, sometimes 10 times as long.
Of course that may not be economical due to your original EL-84 being out of production with the accompanying highly inflated prices. In that case you would want to try another brand and issue of EL-84 that would be as close as possible in sound to your existing EL-84's, when they were fresh, so that you can retain your ECC83 drivers.
And failing that you would probably want to pick out some EL-84's and ECC83's that combined give you the sound you want. The Sovtek EL84/6BQ5 and Groove Tube 12AX7M's are a combo I thought sounded good, but there are probably many other good combos out there, and what I think sounds good, you may not think sounds good. The Groove Tube 12AX7M stock is no longer reliable, but others report the New Sensor Mullard 12AX7's are just as good - but I haven't tried them, yet. So no guarantees.
If you want to try the RCA 5963 blackplate, you could phone thetubestore.com and ask them if they have it. I recommend you pay the extra $5 to get one with matched sections. They've gone through a whole box of tubes with me on the phone and I picked out the ones I wanted.
The tubes in your phono section will probably last a long time, so unless you just want to try the flavour of some different tubes there is no need to worry about them. I found the Groove Tube 12AX7M excellent in my phono stage as well. I've never had 6DJ8's in any equipment I've owned, so can't comment. The tube shields come off by pushing down gently and rotating until they release.
I have boxes of NOS and current production tubes here for the Oto, such as various issues of NOS Mullard, RCA, Sylvania, and various current production quads of EL84's; and NOS Mullard, Brimar, RCA, (and who knows what) and multiples of various current production ECC82/12AU7 & ECC83/12AX7. Testing, matching and trying them in the Oto is time consuming, but I might take some time between some amp rebuilds this winter to run as many as possible through and then I might feel confident enough for some recommendations.
Have you asked Soundhounds for a recommendation for current production tubes?
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Follow Ups
- RE: OTO Phono SE 9 tubes or 10? - Frank E 05/28/0815:06:22 05/28/08 (0)
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