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
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,735 posts
 

Could also be the KT150's IMO they can be overly bright tubes and IMO not a great match with Klipsch. pobably way more power then you need as well. 

JJ's are not the tube i'd go with if your looking for a warmer sound.

you really need to look at a SET with the Corwall 4's I have two friends with them and both have, over time, migrated to SET's like 300b's, 804's etc and similar. 

jksimmons OP
3 posts
 

Many, many thanks to all of you for these excellent insights and suggestions. I appreciate the ideas. Frankly, I am going to have a blast pursuing the recommendations you've shared.  Thanks again, everyone.

viridian's avatar
viridian
5,178 posts
 

You will get more mileage by replacing the rather pedestrian coupling caps.

thecarpathian's avatar
thecarpathian
4,986 posts
 

You have a Quicksilver preamp with a remote??!

I didn't know there was such a thing...🤔

xenolith's avatar
xenolith
163 posts
 

Longtime member petg60, who hasn't posted since June 23, 2023...and I think may have died due to his prior relatively high posting frequency, told me in this thread: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/1975-new-reflektor-6n23p-swgp-or-siemens-amperex-telefunken-cca

"Try to get some 6n23p Voskhods 74-79 period and you will never look back..."

He was right.

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