Best Tubes for Rogue Audio Sphinx V3 Magnum


I purchased a used Rogue Audio Sphinx 3 Magnum at good price that came with 5 extra sets of 12AU7 tubes. The previous owner installed thumbscrews into the unit to make it easier to roll tubes.. This is my first foray into tubes and the integrated sounds great with my Orchard Audio PecanPi+ streamer and Goldenear Triton 7 speakers.  The sound is a massive improvement over my old Rotel RA 1570 Integrated.
The unit currently has a pair of NOS Bugle Boy tubes installed.  I also have set of the OEM JJ tubes that came with the amp along with NOS Mullard, Telefunken, and RCA Clear tubes.   There is also a set of new Genelex Gold Lion tubes.

For those of you that are familiar with tubes, which pair would you recommend to try first?  I would also be interested in these tubes in general.
Thanks for you input.

 

flyfish77

Showing 1 response by avanti1960

@flyfish77 

Brent Jessee does not have a retail office where you can buy tubes on site. 

I have had several Rogue Audio products before and I suggest that the stock JJ tubes not be so quickly dismissed.  
With the cronus magnum the amperex preamp tube sounded best but needed an rca or jj tube in another position to balance it out.  

with the two buffer tube rogue pepreamp i had, the jj did sound the best overall- dynamic, clear midrange, excellent bass, smooth detailed treble once burned in.  the jj tubes take a long time to burn in, some people reporting 400 hrs or so. 

i have tried pretty much every nos 12au7 including mullard, telefunken, siemens, amperex, rca, ge, mazda, philips, etc.  also gold lions and tung sol reissues.  the jj work very well in rogue products. 

since you have a bunch to try, go ahead and listen to them.  take notes and try to use some demo tracks to evaluate them with the same music. 

fyi rogue tube sockets are very robust, i wailed on my cronus magnum over the years and never an issue. 

the jjs sounded best in the rogue pharaoh, big brother of the sphinx. 

dont overlook them.