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Just woke up my McIntosh amp


Frank1938

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I had a Telefunken 12ax7 go bad in my 225 amp and searched for a good replacement. I certainly found one!

Amperex Bugle Boy 12AX7 ECC83 D Getter with Metal Strip.

Not cheap, but definitely worth the cost. Mids and highs are outstanding. Anyone else with experience with this tube?

Frank

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I had a Telefunken 12ax7 go bad in my 225 amp and searched for a good replacement. I certainly found one!

Amperex Bugle Boy 12AX7 ECC83 D Getter with Metal Strip.

Not cheap, but definitely worth the cost. Mids and highs are outstanding. Anyone else with experience with this tube?

Frank

And it should last you for quite a while...
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That's okay... I just went through a half dozen 6922s for my Merlin before I got one quiet enough. I could hear the hiss 15 feet away... [8o|] Also replaced the 6x4 rectifier with a Mullard 6x4 Iborrowed from an old Heathkit bench power supply.

Much better... [Y]

Bruce

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I had a Telefunken 12ax7 go bad in my 225 amp and searched for a good replacement. I certainly found one!

Amperex Bugle Boy 12AX7 ECC83 D Getter with Metal Strip.

Not cheap, but definitely worth the cost. Mids and highs are outstanding. Anyone else with experience with this tube?

Frank

The D getter Philips family 12AX7s are superlative, to be sure. There is no tube on this planet in 12AX7 with the full top to bottom realism that these tubes provide. The finish of a cymbal - and the female voice - might not be reproduceable in any way like the early Philips do. Might well be the perfect 12AX7.....

BUT......

I find in McIntosh vintage gear that the Teles are still my personal favorite. In both my MX110 and twin pairs of MC30, the Teles reign supreme. I ran extensive sonic tests in multiple builds of MC30 - and one of those tests was shootouts between all Amperex vs. all Tele 12AX7. I found the Amperex/Philips 12AX7s to be a bit more linear, where the Teles have a more accentuated midrange "glow". Particularly when I used all Teles through the whole Mac sonic chain (all amps and pre), the midrange has a life that is what makes the Macs like no other - that ability to wake up those old recordings "from the dead". I also find that the lighter/quicker bass of the Teles mesh extremely well with vintage Mac gears as the bass is a bit more pronounced with most other 12AX7 (including RCA and euro Philips).

I DO prefer the Philips on the phase splitters for Mac amps.

When I did my tube rolls on my Mac amps I ran preselected sets of 12AX7 for a few weeks at a time, sometimes longer, to get a bigger overall sense as to the "finish" of these tubes. What I discovered was that many aspects of the sound would lean to one tube or another, but not always a clear winner. But in the overall, I selected the Teles in the vintage Mac gear, where I use my Philips/Amperex 12AX7s in everything else. All early Philips in the VRD/JM kit, as well as in the tube buffered CD.

It's all preference, of course, and you might consider rolling a Tele back in there, a few months down the line, and see what you think then. You'll find reasons to love them both.

Oh, and don't ever try the 50's Mullard square getter 12AX7. They are as addictive as crack. The prices will talk you out of them.

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Thanks very much for your kind input and I certainly will try your suggestion of rolling a Telefunken back into the amp. I have them in my other two 225s and they certainly work fine. This is my main 2-channel amp and I may have gotten used to listening to it while the tube was slowly weakening.

Frank

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I would certainly enjoy that Amperex for a while and get to know that tube thoroughly. In many ways, having this in your main 2 channel system might be a benefit for that tube (again, linearity). I tend to use Mac gear for older and less perfect recordings as well as a "SET" ish sound I get from certain builds, and my main kit for the best and more modern recordings. The subtle nuances of the gears and tube flavors are appreciable and enjoyable. When you're playing in that class of tube you'll oft find no clear winner for every purpose and gear combo, and lots of good in all of them.

I find the Teles have a bit of a "kink" in the mids in Macs particularly, much like a 6L6, vs. the Amperexes being more like a "KT66" - a "super 6L6 without the kink".

Fun stuff[:)]

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