Just my 2 cents.This past winter,both I and my friend(who has almost the exact same rig as me)decided to do a fairly thorough "tube rolling" discourse,with our phono stages.I'll begin by stating that the Joe's Tube Lore piece was,and is,extremely accurate for the most part.I believe that Joe does state that his is a digital based set-up,and this MUST be taken into consideration,though the final findings are really amazing to me,in their thoroughness.
Some of our findings,done with usually two sets each,of tubes,for accuracy,in phono ONLY!The Tele's "sort of sucked",and were not cheap.I say this based on price,and compared to other tube types.Russian sovteks were "EHH"!Gold pinned Mullards were "pretty good",not great,but a nice smooth sound.Amperex 7308(non PQ) was very nice,nice violin sound,a bit lacking in slam.Amperex PQ was "exactly as Joe described", really a fine tube,in all areas.Ediswan 6922's were a real surprise,though well reviewed,they had a "ton" of dynamics,and were really very nice,in all areas.Very similar to the PQ Amperexes,to us.The tube that we liked the best,though I'm not advocating getting these,due to high pricing,as well as getting really good low noise ones,was the Siemens CCa's.WOW!!!We were privy to an EXTREMELY low noise batch(not easy to find them this quiet),and they were stunning with a capital "S"!!Incredible high freq. extension,with a never ending top extension,that is SO "PURE",I would not have believed it.Fabulous "SLAM",and dynamic impact.Gorgeous tonality too.But, way too expensive.IMO,the Amperex family,for alot less money,is the value here,though I'm hanging on to my CCa's,with an iron grip!They work so well in my ARC phonostage that I'm not really interested in trying the "Pinched Waist" Amperexes!Actually I lied.I think I'm sort of like the guy in the movie "Close Encounters Of the Third Kind!I feel forced to try them.If I'm lucky enough to find a few.Best regards!
Some of our findings,done with usually two sets each,of tubes,for accuracy,in phono ONLY!The Tele's "sort of sucked",and were not cheap.I say this based on price,and compared to other tube types.Russian sovteks were "EHH"!Gold pinned Mullards were "pretty good",not great,but a nice smooth sound.Amperex 7308(non PQ) was very nice,nice violin sound,a bit lacking in slam.Amperex PQ was "exactly as Joe described", really a fine tube,in all areas.Ediswan 6922's were a real surprise,though well reviewed,they had a "ton" of dynamics,and were really very nice,in all areas.Very similar to the PQ Amperexes,to us.The tube that we liked the best,though I'm not advocating getting these,due to high pricing,as well as getting really good low noise ones,was the Siemens CCa's.WOW!!!We were privy to an EXTREMELY low noise batch(not easy to find them this quiet),and they were stunning with a capital "S"!!Incredible high freq. extension,with a never ending top extension,that is SO "PURE",I would not have believed it.Fabulous "SLAM",and dynamic impact.Gorgeous tonality too.But, way too expensive.IMO,the Amperex family,for alot less money,is the value here,though I'm hanging on to my CCa's,with an iron grip!They work so well in my ARC phonostage that I'm not really interested in trying the "Pinched Waist" Amperexes!Actually I lied.I think I'm sort of like the guy in the movie "Close Encounters Of the Third Kind!I feel forced to try them.If I'm lucky enough to find a few.Best regards!