Project Tube Box DS2 vs. Hagerman Audio Trumpet MC

I emailed him, got this response: 

"Start with stock tubes, let them break in for awhile.  Then for tonality
changes, swap the X7 in pairs.  For dynamics and weight, the U7 pair."

Fwiw I ordered a trumpet... still not sure what to do on tubes. I listen to a lot of acoustic guitar and jazz and definitely want to keep definition

@orange5o 

Congrats. Yea, they may break in some, but, depending on what you want, changing the tubes will change the sound signature quite a bit.

Do some research, read the sound signatures of various tubes, then try some. It’s fun. 

I also changed the 12au7’s to NOS Brimar’s from Upscale.

Pretty happy with those and the Dynaco/Telefunken smooth plates. I also listen to a lot of acoustical, jazz, and classical. So I wanted tweaks that would provide some ‘air’, as you say, sparkle, and definition. The stock Mullards are a bit thick and dense, and doubt break in will change that significantly. That’s what they are.

Then the SBoster LPS really made another nice improvement.

Thanks, I think I may start with gold lions from Kevin's stash just bc in pretty new and don't want to get burned by a bad source. What do you think about getting 2 ax7 and 2 au7 and then 2 nos ax7s and try mixing? 

Also what voltage of sbooster? Thanks!

@orange5o

The Gold Lion gold pins I have are new. Really not a huge investment. IIRC about $35~40 per. Yea, you can replace two AX7’s at a time if you wish, but personally, I tried 2 of the stock Mullards and 2 of the Gold Lions, and yea, went with 4. The mix was fine, just didn’t give me the sound I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, the Mullards are pretty good, Kevin D likes them too, but as you, desired more airy sparkle and definition. The Gold Lions are also pretty good bass producers too.

The SBooster is the selectable 15-16.5v model. The Trumpet uses 15v.