Dodd Preamp Question

I have tried the Siemens, Amperex and Mullards and can report that in my system there is no contest, the Mullards are by far the best sound. They are not at all tubby or bloated or rolled off on either extreme. This is not subtle. Now, all of the tubes are considerably better than the stock tubes. I am getting soundstaging which is magical. I thought the preamp was somewhat thin sounding until this tweak. As with all tube rolling, it will be system dependent. I can also say that Gary Dodd has experieced the same results. Just my 2 cents.

Jeffga,

What Siemens tubes did you try?

The early Siemens '60's CCa is the tube to beat in this pre.

How good is the Dodd compared to other modern tube preamps, maybe for example the Modwright? It at the very least must have a low noise floor because of its battery supply.

It is very good. How good?.....is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.

01-29-09: Jeffga
I have tried the Siemens, Amperex and Mullards and can report that in my system there is no contest, the Mullards are by far the best sound. They are not at all tubby or bloated or rolled off on either extreme.

Glad to hear another Mullard user de-bunk the "tubby, rolled-off, bloated" stereotype these tubes garner from some on this site.

I recently tried some early 60s, Siemens CCa grey riser tubes...(the ones to have...no excuses about how they weren't the correct CCa...) in a tube preamp that uses 6922 tubes, and the CCa while creating a very large and dynamic image were shouty and aggressive in the upper mids and highs. The sound they produced became fatiguing fairly quickly.

I have installed CCa tubes in three different components and in three different system configurations that I have owned over the years, and the CCa have never remained installed for more than a few days. I have never found them natural sounding, although other have found them to be so.