2. amps-preamps
  3. 193791-199096

Suggestions for Preamp Tubes

Friends,

I seek your suggestions for preamp tubes.  My preamp is a Quicksilver remote control line stage preamp that came equipped with two 6DJ8 tubes.  Mike Sanders, who built the preamp, confirmed that I can substitute  the stock tubes with 6N1P, 6AQ8, 6922, or 7308 tubes.  The treble seems a bit bright, although the bass and mids seem lovely to me with the 6DJ8 tubes.  Should I try another option from among these alternatives?

The other components in my system are:

Audiolab CD transport

Cambridge Audio CXN100 Streamer

Cambridge Audio DACMagic 200M

The aforementioned Quicksilver preamp

A custom tube amp with four Tung Sol KT150's

and Klipsch Cornwall IV's.

Any suggestions on whether to swap the preamp tubes and, if so, with recommended options will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jay

jksimmons

Showing 2 responses by audition__audio

audition__audio
1,675 posts
 

My favorite 6DJ8 has always been the Amperex early to mid 1960s production. Still reasonably priced. If you can get the tubes guaranteed to be noise and microphonics free. The tubes may not be to blame in regards to your system's bright quality.

audition__audio
1,675 posts
 

Up until recently the Russian versions of the 6922, and by default 7308 and 6DJ8, were horrible sounding tubes. Even the rather pedestrian U.S. made versions were much better. The newer production versions might be better, but I cant speak to this directly. Each tube type is different in this regard, but old stock has never let me down. 

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