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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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PREAMP
Tung Sol 6P5GT or 76 type. Input preamp tube with great bias point at 100 volts plate that outperforms 6J5 or 6SN7 (two 6J5s). RCA 26 tube has a performance edge, but direct filament makes for more complicated design.
TRIODE AMP
RCA 2A3. Super all around performing tube either in SET or PP. PP makes enough power to allow broader range of speakers vs higher efficiency. (Yes, I built 45 tube amps too).
TRIODE connected PENTODE AMP (Best so far)
Sylvania 6V6GT with small oval grey plate (like Sylvania 7C5 version) outperforms all NOS I tried plus other triode connected pentode tubes to date. Must be one of the best pentode tubes in this configuration. Look at the plate curves. Caution: The Sylvania 6V6GT large black plate are lousy in my amp.
PHASE SPLITTER
Raytheon 6CG7 USA with center shield makes for a great phase splitter & outperforms 6SN7 in some applications per my experiments.
TUNER RF AMP
Telefunken ECC85. If one has a modified to the ninth degree FM tuner, even the RF amp tube make a difference.
TUNER DETECTOR
Mullard 6AL5 or Tung Sol 6AL5 square getter. (Yes, I hear slight differences in detector tubes).
TUNER I.F. TUBES
RCA 6AU6 is the best tube (6136 is the industrial version). Either black or grey plate. The black plates have slightly higher gain. RCA 6HS6 is a high performance 6AU6 that gives an edge in gain in some I.F. positions. (GE & Sylvania made my highly modified tuner sound lousy).
OTHER TUNER TUBES
When in doubt, use RCA.
GENERAL REPLACEMENT tubes for vintage equipment for those that do not want to change the circuit & tube type:
Mullard 12AX7 long plate or Brimar 12AX7. Never a disapointment so far.
GE EL84 grey oval plate or Sylvania EL84 black plate are excellent. The Sylvania can have a performance edge.
Mullard GZ34 or EZ81. Always a top performer.
Amperex E80CC. A 12AU7 plug & play 'bail out' tube. Only thing worst than a 12AU7 is a fire on your amplifier chassis. Lousy 12AU7s unfortunately show up too often in vintage gear.
Sylvania 6SN7. I never cared for the 'T' plate design or any metal base types in my applications. The black 'Y' plates are the best bet IMO.
Siemens 6922. I also find same tube in RCA label, but must say Germany on the tube and have gold pins. A report stated early to mid production tubes used the Cca version smaller diameter grid element.
12DW7. Unfortunately 1/2 a 12AU7 exists in this tube. If the tube is driving a power tube, rewiring the 12AX7 side to 12AU7 with the E80CC 12AU7 replacement usually has enough gain. If two (one per channel) are used in the preamp, I rewire the tube sockets to accept one Mullard 12AX7 & Amperex E80CC using 1/2 of each tube per channel. No other way out? Use Telefunken or RCA (not later short plate version).
Circuits vary, thus your results may be different than my results. One tube driving another tube makes for a two tube circuit that may or may not compliment one another.
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Topic - Best Tube & Application- Home Entertainment applications - Neff 06:46:30 09/13/08 (0)
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