Good report, O_holter. Hopefully the RCAs will also prove themselves to be reliable over the longer term, which will then provide a great alternative!
Atma-sphere amps best power tubes
This question has been debated before on A-gon but without a clear onclusion. I wonder, is it worth it, to upgrade from stock Russian or China output tubes (6as7g), to American NOS tubes?
It seems that everyone agrees that upgrading the Atma-sphere driver tubes from stock Russian/Chinese to NOS is well worth it. This is my experience also.
I am wondering about changing the output / power tubes too. I wonder if a change to NOS is well worth it also in the output case.
It seems likely, judging from my other equipment testing.
My Audiotailor Jade OTL headphone amp uses 1 6asg7 and 1 12ax7. No surprise - it sounds better with a good NOS 12ax7 compared to Russian/Chinese stock 12ax7.
More surprisingly, it also sounds clearly better with a NOS 6as7g output tube (General Electric US NOS). The improvement is largest with the driver tube but not so much behind with the output tube. Almost 50 50.
A lot of output tubes are involved - 28 tubes in my MA-1 amps. Changing them all is costly, and so I would like to know some user experience before I go into this.
It seems that everyone agrees that upgrading the Atma-sphere driver tubes from stock Russian/Chinese to NOS is well worth it. This is my experience also.
I am wondering about changing the output / power tubes too. I wonder if a change to NOS is well worth it also in the output case.
It seems likely, judging from my other equipment testing.
My Audiotailor Jade OTL headphone amp uses 1 6asg7 and 1 12ax7. No surprise - it sounds better with a good NOS 12ax7 compared to Russian/Chinese stock 12ax7.
More surprisingly, it also sounds clearly better with a NOS 6as7g output tube (General Electric US NOS). The improvement is largest with the driver tube but not so much behind with the output tube. Almost 50 50.
A lot of output tubes are involved - 28 tubes in my MA-1 amps. Changing them all is costly, and so I would like to know some user experience before I go into this.
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- 38 posts total
- 38 posts total