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Rolled some 12ax7's recently...

Hi All,
I went through my supply of 12ax7's recently and found some goodies.
I recently compared Bugle Boys to Telefunkens in the phono stage of my pre-amp. Interesting (to me, at least). I found the Telefunkens to be nice sounding; very clean and clear, very nice detail, over all a very nice sounding tube. The Bugle Boys, however, were magical! WOW! Timbre was so much more apparent. The soundstage depth and width increased; especially the depth. The music seemed to come alive and glow. It was much more captivating.
I found such a dramatic difference between two high quality tubes very interesting.
I have yet to try 10m's, and 70's Mullards that I found. I will report when I do...
By the way, NOS Sylvania's sound nice in the line-level stage. All tubes reported are vintage NOS. I match them with my tube tester. And, I do not change the volume setting between tube brands tested.
Any comments are more than welcomed! I appreciate any information on your experiences with 12ax7's. The price of some of these NOS is incredible; I am glad to have these nice examples in my collection!
Cheers.
bicycle_man

Showing 2 responses by pdreher

pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,185 posts
 
I've found the inexpensive new production / re-issue tubes to be very dissapointing (Mullard & Sovtek). As far as NOS 12AX7's go, Mullard CV4004's are more lively, but less neutral than the mega expensive Mullard 10M gold pins, however, I still give the edge to the less expensive CV4004's.

Telefunken ECC803S are fine tubes IME. Neutral and somewhat lean sounding in comparison to the Mullard CV4004's... I like the Tele ECC803S as much as the CV4004's, it's just a different sound.

I'd be inerested to know who fellow audiogoners go to to get good, authentic tubes at a reasonable price.

I've used the following:
- Vintage Tube Services (very knowledgeable, good selection... but slow service)
- Tube World (knowledgeable & good service)
- Various offerings from fellow Audiogoners & Ebay (inexpensive, but I question the tube authenticity & quality)

I once foolishly paid $800 for a pair of Mullard 10M gold pins, expecting them to be he cats meow, but found them to be somewhat dull sounding... hence leading me to question their authenticity.

Should I resign myself to accepting that buying NOS tubes is akin to buying older used cars... or are there dependable dealers with reasonable prices that I'm not aware of?
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pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,185 posts
 
Cruz123 - The Mullard reissues are garbage IME, and the Sovtek LPS are moderately better. I've found you get what you pay for when it comes to tubes. Finding used NOS tubes in good condition can save you some money, but still expect to pay quite a bit more than the inexpensive current tubes previously referenced.
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