rib61, Apologies if I've taken your thread in another direction. Since the 6922s were mentioned here, I thought this may be of some interest. rodman99999, I purchased some tubes second hand through a member here who bought them through Andy's Vintage Tube Service. His site seems to offer more initial info and the prices are somewhat lower than Upscale Audio. The tubes I bought are very good, still in use in the unit I installed then in. |
Hello, slaw- Generally speaking, it seems most that use the term, "musical", are referring to tubes that add warmth to their system. Siemens won’t. The early to mid 60’s, grey shield, internally date coded, CCa is a very neutral/clean tube, with beautiful extension(in both directions) and great sound stage. The later ones(CCa’s), with the silver shield, can be kinda zingy on top(for my tastes), but- most everything else is still there. Mullard and Ediswan made 7308/E188CC tubes that will probably fulfill your desires/tastes, if you’re looking for warmth. Amperex, a bit less warmth than those two. Just be certain to ask for tubes graded, "low noise". I bought a number of excellent Siemens tubes(mostly E188CC & CCa) from this guy, back when he had them: (http://www.ebay.com/usr/audiotubes_de?_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2754) I haven’t bought any nine-pins in a few years(thankfully, given the current price of my preferences) and can’t find a link to the other sellers. One was in Argentina and it took the package of CCa’s 6 weeks to get to me. Yeah, I was sweating! Upscale Audio tests and grades their tubes for noise and a plethora of other parameters. (https://www.upscaleaudio.com/collections/preamp-tubes/6922-6dj8-7308-pcc88) |
My experience is similar to rlb61. The 6H30 implementation that I've heard/owned in various preamps much too close to a transistor in terms of sound to justify the downsides of tube ownership, at least for me. I got tired of worrying about putting hours on the tubes, etc. The 6H30 certainly is in vogue however and there are many who love them, I simply wasn't one of them. I guess I'm just a SS guy when it comes down to it. |
All "super tubes" are not created equal. The last BAT VK-300SE I purchased (three years old at the time) had noisy 6H30s. I purchased a new pair from Audio Research which were gritty and progressively noisy after three months. I finally "bit the bullet" and acquired two NOS "DR" tubes from BAT -$300 a pop (these were stamped ’91 as the year of manufacture). These have performed well and sound good. |
That’s what I thought. I was aware of the tube, but- never saw it used, prior to BAT’s VK-D5SE(et al). I’m with you, when it comes to the most excellent 6SN7, but- I don’t believe anyone made a quieter tube than the Siemens CCa(six, in my VK-D5). From what I hear, the German and Dutch Posts were pretty picky! |
No- we rejected the tube as it had a lot of the same problems as the 6922 and similar. Frame grid triodes although very linear usually don’t have good microphonic characteristics. New Sensor at the time made a pretty big deal about the tube- I think they wanted to sell some. But the guitar guys weren’t interested and it was a few years before we saw any product actually using them- and in that regard I do think BAT was one of the early adopters. |
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The Russian 6H30 was actually introduced to the USA by BAT(who has as it’s designer a genuine Russian rocket scientist). The tube is more efficient than the previous 6DJ8/6922, allowing less tubes in circuit, to perform the same job. ie: My VK-D5 uses six 6922s(early sixties, Siemens CCa Grey Shields) vs the VK-D5 SE’s four 6H30s. It’s also an innately quieter design, which makes it attractive for high-gain devices. Nowhere near as many variants/iterations as the manufactured for many decades, by a plethora of providers, with as many sonic signatures, 6DJ8/6922/ECC88/6N23P types. |
