Revisiting Tube Recommendations for Cayin TA-30


My appologies if this has already been beaten to death! :)

I hope you all are up for this post! I'll owe you all big time!

I have a Cayin TA-30 (purchased in '03) with mods from Paul that included the sub out. It has been connected to B&W Nautilus 803's and a B&W ASW800. I have a Sony XA9000ES as my cd/sacd player.

I replaced them all once from Paul with EL34's, 12AU7's, and 12AX7's tubes, from EH. Simply put, the TA-30 just doesn't come close to sounding as good as the stock tubes did. It, to me, sounds so flat and not open like it used to. I bias the tubes about every 90 days to keep them running at their best.

So now come the questions.

1st. The broad question I have is I need to replace the tubes again, and I want to replace them all, but there are soooo many options and choices and I'm really not interested in "tube rolling", though I know I really should be. Where does one start? I'm overwhelmed!

2nd. The TA-30, I see, can accommodate my types of tubes. Is a KT88 "brighter" or better, or should I stay with EL34's like it's called for? Should optional tubes be used on the front end? Is the TA-30 "pushed" to much using these other tubes?

3rd. Since I have the TA-30 connected to the sub, should I focus only on mids and highs for tubes?

4th. Is there a source out there where I can get this information without bothering you all? I googled some variations, but just haven't had luck. Is it just me, or are all the tube reviews done on guitar amps, not home audio amps?

Well, wasn't that a mess??? :)

Thanks in advance to you all! I hope this thread can become a resource for all us TA-30 users!

Regards,
Bob
bstromberg1
Johnbonn,
I think Koiman/Paul may have this right, in fact the 6n3ce run cool and will last a very, very long time. I did see one spec that said 410 mV, but that was for a different amp by a person in Europe. At any rate I love the auto-bias feature. I think the Cayin bias procedure is a tough go from what I read. This whole process should be a lot easier.
Mikirob,
If you have one of pauls modified Cayin TA-30 it's a very simple to Bias. Check his site.

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/TA30ADJUSTMENTS.html
Yeh rub it in guys unfortunately I have an older one that is me biasing. If anyone has input on the bias setting I would really appreciate the input. And if anyone is running them in the older unit please give me your thoughts. Thank you
Johnbonn,
Read my input from koiman 4 lines above. I put the bias values for the TA-30 and the stock EL-34 plus other tubes.
Lee
Thank you for getting back to me, so you are saying the 6L6 is the same as the 6n3ce setting? Have you tried the 6n3ce tubes? Thank you