Best of the AMperex 6DJ8/6922 Tubes

I have one pair of Amperex 7308 Orange labels and one pair of Amperex 7308 white labels if anyone is interested. I purchased them from Brent Jesse new and I put approximately 50 hours on them in a Manley Chinook. I had to sell the Chinook for something unrelated to audio so I no longer need the Amperex.
I paid $80 for the Orange label pair and $400 for the white label pair.
Anyone?
PM me if interested.

Andy vintage tubes highly recommended. 

Christmas mail deluge, but finally my tubes arrived. The (4) 12AX7s Bugle Boys (NOS early 60s) right out of the box, like Andy said, sound beautiful. I'm lucky, perhaps the owner of my Bel Canto SET 40 wouldn't have sold this amp if he had better tubes. (BTW the 845s were quite inferior to the ones I replaced them with, as well.) I'm going to mail Andy the counterfeit Amperex to see if he can give me the scoop. Just had time to check out an hours worth of some reference tunes. Oooh, is this going to be fun. I'll give myself a few days to amass a new tube vocabulary/referent before I pop in the two 6DJ8 Bugle Boys for the pre. It's going to be a very sweet new year...I'll keep you posted...warren :)

less than 24 hours later:

Who am I kidding? You think I could wait a few days. Put the BBs in the pre. Man o man, is this grand. I'll give you more, when I know more..

Yes 7308 Amprex PQ/E188CC (made in U.S.A. north anerican Phillips co. tube) white label, steel pins. I have several pairs, detailed... large soundstage... but need long breakin period, should last a long time.

Rx8man, good point. Hopefully it will be a fairly inexpensive road to finding tube nirvana. And if it so happens to be NOS nirvana, I better start stock piling them...

In the 6922 based preamps I have owned. A properly selected pair of Amperex 6dj8 Bugle Boys has never disappointed. I prefer the vintage of 1962-1964. Try to puchase NEW/Unused examples. The used pulls from scopes all tend to be noisy/spitty/microphonic. The later vintage, (with the silver eletrostatic spacer) I find to sound too lean.

Couple things to remember, tubes can be very subjective to sound quality, what sounds great in one place can sound mediocre or crappy in another.

Equipment type and surrounding circuitry play a role even though tube types have inherent characters.

Manufacturing facilitys and lot runs (current and extinct) add to the variables.

So, when you find the magic bottle combo, better grab some extras, cause replacing expensive, rare, N.O.$.ers can be saddening when they're history !

I,m waiting on deliver from Any Bowman, for a pair or of NOS Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8s. He swears by these. I will let you know. Should be nice snergy between the (4) NOS Amperex BB 12AX7 in my amp. Will let you know when I know. Gotta start somewhere being that my 4 Amperex in my amp were conterfeits.

Paying through the nose:

If you pay through the nose for something, you pay a very high price for it.

There are a couple of competing folk derivations of this phrase, but they are regarded by philologists as somewhat far-fetched.

One derivation holds that it is a reference to the Danish poll tax on the Irish in the ninth century. The story goes that the Danes slit the noses of non-payers. However the phrase did not appear in print until 1672.

Annother possible explanation is placed on Viking raiders. Vikings would require the payment of tribute from cities they did not raid. If the king refused to pay tribute they would slit their noses. Hence, the king paid "through" the nose.

Another explanation relies on the use of rhino as a slang for money. Rhinos is the Greek word for nose, thus a rather loose connection is supposed to be set up between paying and noses. A nosebleed as a metaphor for being "bled dry" of money.

In sixteenth century English, Italian, Greek and Latin, however, there is found an already well established expression "to lead by the nose," which means to force or control someone's actions as a farmer would lead a bull by a ring through its nose. It also has connotations of making a fool of someone. ( 'led by the nose, as asses are' (Othello, Act I, Sc 3). Thus to pay through the nose could have originated as an extension of this to denote payment for something at a premium because of lack of alternative options.

Thanks for the responses so far. Is there a web site that I can look up the ones that I have so that I can look at Joe's T L and see what I really have? Where is the best place to buy a few different pairs without paying through the nose, ebay?

Peter

7308 Amprex PQ's steel pins are nearly as nice as seimens gold pins in my first sound pre, detailed, lush but take a long break in period. they are also less money...

I use the Amperex PQ 1960 6922/E88CC D getter.
The best 6922 I have tried to date.
I also have Mullard 6922/E88CC that were made Mitcham Plant and SIEMENS gold pins.
both the SIEMENS and Mullard are great tubes.
The Amperex PQ D getter.They have a huge soundstage and are very balanced from top to bottom.
bass seems to go down deeper with more control,midrange is very smooth and the highs are very detailed right down to the slightest sound.
I do like the Mullard's allot the midrange is to die for very airy in sound.
But overall I think the PQ D getter are best choice? from what I have used to date.
You can always try The Amperex 6922 pinched waist tubes.
I have been told they are the best?? who knows?
I know I will never find out, they are more$ than I am going to spend.

Amperex 7308's are the best sounding 6dj8 replacement that I own...kind of $$$ for 4 of them though.

Dave

i agree with tvad as i,too, use the 6922 pq white labels in my first sound paramount pre amp and like these better then the seimen halske or matshushitas' that i have also tried..great tubes.

Peter:
The '7316' is not a 6922 equivalent, but is a 12AU7 variant.

http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/d.pl?audio/faq/joes-tubes.html

I used Joe`s recommendations as a base and bought an amperex 6922 PQ, white label, gold pins, US, D-getter. I also purchaed an orange globe 6dj8, Holland, steel pins.

I like them both. In my system, using the orange globe, the vocals are ever so slightly recessed compared to the 6922 white label, however, the 6dj8 has very slightly better definition.

I`d be very happy with either.