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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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In Reply to: RE: A Favorite 6DJ8 is the Equivalent of a Favorite Demon from Hell posted by kathrynatrand@hotmail.com on March 25, 2014 at 15:10:43:
kathrynatrand@hotmail.com,
Yes, the SP8 is one of my favorite preamps. The SP10 I respect emormously, but the SP8 is somehow more "likeable"- it's a bit more forgiving. I listen for performance and repetoire instead of sound quality and end up with old Vanguard re-released Gieseking or Lipatti- and the SP10 is unrelenting. My SP8 is one of the "red board" models- and still has it's original 1985 tubes. I've had Siemens triple mica E83CC's waiting for years, but the originals are still quiet and strong.
The SP10 is just fantastic and beautifully adapted to LP's- swirchable cartridge loading and two phono inputs so I can change form th Oracle III/SME V to the delights of a Dual 1219 with a Grado 78 catridge in seconds. Something I rediscovered with certain music- solo instrumental mostly is how astounding good mono is as compared to medium stereo.
With Philips- Amperex, Valvo, Mullard 6DJ8 tubes, one has to be careful about the era as there are some nasty later 6922's and JAN 7308's.
Mullard is a brand for which I would expect to have an affinity, and I have a number of Mullards that I think are excellent- GZ34 and M8129 (Premium 12AT7), but overall over time Ive gravitated to Siemens for a lot of things as they tend to be energetic > E81CC, 5814, E83CC. With E88CC, E188CC I like Siemens as well, and they are rugged and quiet, but here I tend towards the Philips balance of attributes- refined, natural timbre, discretion between sounds, imaging. Telefunken is another brand that, like Mullard has it uses, but that was never an obsession.
As you mention, it's possible to mix types and I tend to use more aggressive Siemens to wake up vintage McIntosh and in the SP10, the refined Valvos in the Phono and the punchy bass of the Siemens for the line stage, though I rarely play CD's with the SP10.
For office use, I don't like to run tubes , so I have an LS3 / D130 with a Revox B160 or Mcintosh MR77 tuner and a Cambridge Audio 640C CD and Infinity 360 speakers. The Speakers are the weak link as the LS3 /D130 is a very good combination. I used a McIntosh MR67 tube tuner for awhile with old Vandersteen 2C's and that was an amazing combination. the D130 is wonderfully neutral- whatever is input is output only more of it and very dynamic. it's cold-blooded though and takes hours to warm up- 3 or 4.
Yes, NOS tubes have become more difficult for two reasons> the differences between the really good ones and later, not so wonderful are more obscured, and as you say, the prices are amazing. I estimated that the tubes in the SP10 at the moment would cost more than four times their cost when purchased in the early 2000's - I could never justify the cost today.
Since stating about 2000 or so, I have ended up with about 650 NOS tubes. Years ago I decided I would have four of any tube that was no longer made (a lot of tuner tubes) and as I use 31 types of which more than half haven't been made since the late 80's, that accounts for a lot. Then, I decided I wanted a lifetime supply with options for the SP10, SP8, and McIntosh MR67, then I became interested in tube microphone preamps and- well you get the idea,..
I'm, thinking in the future of using NOS tubes in some odd projects, such as building a chassis with dual clones of EICO mono HF14 integrated but without tone controls. Oh no! I'm going to have start buying EL84's!
Cheers,
Bambi B
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- The Wonderful (and Expensive) World of NOS Tubes - Bambi B 03/27/1405:36:17 03/27/14 (0)
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