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Tubes to roll the Tung-Sol 12AU7


sbcoffey42

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I have the M7 preamp kit that I bought from tubes for HIFI. This pre sounds amazing but it seems to lack the bass that I like. I am running this into some Heresy's with a sub and at times it doesn't even seen like the sub is in the mix. The pre has three tung-sol 12au7 tubes and I was thinking about trying out some JJ ECC802s that they have in stock at tube depot. Does anyone have any experience with the JJ ECC802s, I chose this because one of the reviewers stated a bit much bass for their tastes. Whatever tube I get, I want to stay within the 12au7 family because I am making the assumption that the lower gain tube was chosen for a reason. I have not seen anything bad about the tung-sol but the whole point of the pre-amp was to experiment with the color of the sound it generates. Any advice on this would be appreciated. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/4/2022 at 6:17 AM, jcmusic said:

Contact me I just finished trying many different variants of the 12AU7 tube and found some awesome results with some cheap tubes and some pricey ones!!!

 

Perhaps you could post your results/thoughts here?  

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I will certainly do that, unfortunately I am in the middle of a re-model on my kitchen so it will be a couple of more days before I can safely fire the stereo up.

By safely, I mean the don't you have something better you could be doing right now kinda thing.

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9 hours ago, jimjimbo said:

Perhaps you could post your results/thoughts here?  

Hi Jim,

Ok I have a little time for this now. This whole thing started when I wanted to find variants for the 6SN7 tube, my pre amp and my Korneff 45 amp uses them.

Anyway with really great sounding 6SN7 tubes being super pricey and hard to find I started my journey. Long story short I found some really great sounding variants,

while in the process I was talking to my friend Mark that owns Rogue Audio and he said I should try the 12AU7 tube as sub for the 6SN7!!!

Mark knowing quite a bit about tubes told me that the 12AU7 was the closest tube he knew of to the 6SN7, So now I have another option.

Using an adapter I started with what I had a NOS pair of RCA clear tops, they sounded pretty good but the highs were recessed a bit kinda like in the background.

Then a NOS pair of Valvo 12AU7's and they were better, thena friend told me about the 5963 tubes. I got some and they were terrific but noisy so I started looing for some quiet 5963 tubes. I got a pair of Sylvania gold labeled 5963's and they were dead quiet and sounded fantastic!!!

I talked with another friend about a trade for a pair of Tele's 12AX7's for his 12AU7's, I know all about the Tele sound and I like it, I been using them in my phone stage for 10 years. 

Meanwhile while waiting for the trade to happen I learned about the Amperex 7316 square D getter tubes, that alot of people in the know consider them to be the best sounding 12AU7 tube ever made!!! So the hunt begins as luck would have it I  bumped into someone that had both the square D and the Halo getter versions of this tube.

I got one pair of each from him and was and still am blown away at how good these tubes sound!!! They are almost too good if you can believe that!!!

 

In summary the 5963's are cheap NOS matched $50, the 7316's are high dollar tubes if you can even find them. I checked with both of my go to tube vendors and was told

they are looking for them too!!!! The square D getter tubes sound the best with the Halo getter tubes so close it's hard to tell them apart. The only thing left to do is compare 

them to the mighty Tele's. I am told that the 7316's were Amperex's answer to the Tele 802S tubes.....

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