Recommendations for rolling tubes on Luxman SQ-N10?


I've owned a Luxman SQ-N10 for a little over a year now, and if thought it's only 10W, with the way it's hooked up to high efficiency speakers, I'm very impressed with the amp. I'd like to play around with it a little and see if there might be any benefit in rolling some of the tubes that are on it.

From everything I've read online, most people only switched out the main 12AX7, and I've done so, replacing the stock with a psvane/shuguang. The sound is neutral and detailed for a tube integrated, but in comparing to a quality higher watt amp, it is just not getting the oomph in the way that I hoped. It's there for sure, but I just want a little more.

Have you rolled the tubes to get a chemistry that you like with this amp? If so, what are you using?
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Showing 6 responses by blisshifi

Thanks Nonoise. I'm not really looking to see what different types of tubes there are out there, but rather, which ones have been tried out on this specific amp. More specifically, I'm wondering if there has been any benefit to rolling the EL84 tubes, as I haven't had much experience doing that with cathode biased amps. Most of my tube rolling experience has been with 12AX7 / ECC83 and 6DJ8.
Thanks for the advice Nordicnorm. I did get good results with swapping the 12AX7 and tried a NOS Tele and Amperex and liked the Psvane the best. 

How did rolling the 82s shape the sound for you?
Tell me about it! In the last three years that I've had tube equipment, I must have 15 spare tubes lying around. 

Have you ever tried the regular Shuguang 12AX7's in comparison to the Custom 12AX7 LS? I'm curious as to what you get for the $50 difference for the customs. I'm a big fan of their tubes as I use one in my Luxman SQ-N10 and two of them in my Fosgate Signature Phono preamp.
@nordicnorm - thank you for the response on the Shuguangs. It'll be something to consider down the road when some of my other 12AX7s are done with. For now, I have a handful of decent ones to play with, but thanks for helping me understand em!

@smatsui - Those Mullards were actually started, both in the SQ-N10 and in my previous phono stage. They're a great improvement over most stock tubes for only costing ~$20.
@nordicnorm - just wanted to let you know that I really appreciated the advice you gave about switching the 82 tubes instead of the 84s. Before you posted, I had already ordered a quad of Gold Lion 84s, and after I got them, I wish I had gotten your post because they didn't add any benefit to the sound I was looking for. Instead, I returned them and found a matched pair of PSVane 82s which arrived today. Though they're not broken in yet, they are WORLDS of an improvement in top end detail in comparison to the stock tubes I had in my Luxman. 

The bass issue I had was rectified by a change in cartridge, as I was using a Dynavector 1d73, which was more lean on the bass compared to most other cartridges. I got a huge improvement by moving to an Audio-Technica ART-9, which provides a much more flat response all the way through and is extremely musical. While being less pronounced on the top end detail, the ART-9 got me the bass and dynamic range I wanted while still retaining detail, and these new tubes are stepping in and adding everything else on the top end that I could have wanted. The system is now where I've always wanted it to be, and I am wowed with almost everything I am putting on there.