2. amps-preamps
  3. 1201324454

Best small signal tube for a preamp?

Is there inherently a "best" small signal tube for use in a preamp? Assuming all other things are equal-which of course they never are.
Choices are 6922/12AT7/12AU7/6BK7/6BZ7/12BH7/6H30II (and varients to the listed tubes - e.g. E88CC for 6922, etc.).
The reason for my question is that I am auditioning the Lector Zoe, which can use all of the above tubes by way of its SATC ( autiomatic tube adaptation) circuit and user switchable 6V/12V plate voltage.
I am interested in your reason, which might have to do with inherent sonic characteristics, predisposition for problems such as noise or microphonics, or availability and economy of NOS tubes being better for one tube type over the others. All responses are welcome, and in return I will let you know the results of my listening with the different tubes that I try.
mitch2

Showing 2 responses by newbee

newbee
4,794 posts
 
Rodman99999, I'd love to hear those Siemens in my Cal Sigma/Delta. But, don't they use 12AX7a? :-)

I use 6h23EB's in my BAT (original version - no upsampling). Do you think there is a significant improvement over these when using the Sieman's you mentioned?.

Do you think these Siemens are rugged enuf for an ARC SP10?

Thanks........
newbee
4,794 posts
 
My BAT, an early model (1997 I think) came with low noise Sovteks. Not much different (then) from the 6h23's - I thought the 6h23's might have been a tad, no more, warmer/smoother than the Sovteks but I was using them in my SP10 which is reknown for eating tubes (including the Siemens I tried in it - don't recall if they were 'grey plates'). So I gave up on all my fav' 6DJ8's/6922s and balanced out the rest of my system. I never tried Siemans in the BAT - I did notice though that it benefitted from very low noise tubes so I just kept life simple and used the same tubes in it as I did in my SP10. Thanks for the recommendations...........
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