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Tube rolling Question

Hello Tube Rollers
I recently bought my first tube preamp (Blue Circle 21.1). I've noticed I am need of new tubes as the tube whoosh is considerably more noticeable now than 6 months ago. The amp comes with  Electro-Harmonix 6sn7 tubes which I appreciate and dig the sound. I will certainly replace these with a the gold pin model as I like the sound profile. Here's my question:

What other tubes might you recommend for a different "flavor" of sound, and just to have fun with. I am a poor audio guy so please no recommendations for tubes that will cost more than preamp. 

Thanks in advance. 
128x128birdfan
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Hi,
my friendly advice would be to seek vintage soviet 70's era 6SN7 tubes, your preamp was designed with russian tubes so most likely will sound the best with same kind but from different era. Normally this is the case no matter how much tube rolling we do. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Ideally a particular amp design should be totally Tube brand independent. All 6SN7s have the same electrical characteristics. Unless you wish to ascribe Golden Ear status to the Ruskies. I will eat a bug if ANY Sylvania or RCA or Tung Sol 6SN7 doesn’t sound a lot better than ANY Soviet 6SN7.
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Hi geofkait, most probably and ideally they should sound better but if synergy comes to the mix they will probably don't. As for golden ear status please be open minded and open eared, no biases in audio, try, try, try and try. The best example is in the E88CC family where the finest sounding ones (and a lot cheaper) are 6N23P from the 70's by far. This is my experience after trying every possible NOS (still having more than 300). Most NOS are a waste of time (educated though), money should be spent on LP's.
jburidan
803 posts
 
geoffkait:

Your star has descended behind the bog.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Synergy? Give me a break! The Ruskies won’t take umbrage at what I’m about to say because they don’t know what umbrage means. But the Ruskies don’t experiment with various brands of tubes. They just use whatever tubes are left over from the last MiG-25, The Ruskies are known for using the cheapest parts they can get and still get the thing to work. I was in the pink building with no windows. They weren’t making doughnuts 🍩  in there.
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