What EL34 and 12AU7 NOS tubes...

Hello,

I just bought some of those Mullard re-issues that New Sensor is building and am pretty impressed. There seems to be all sorts of trade-offs with different tubes. I am using them in an Audiomat Aprege integrated, which I find to be sort of a laid-back CJ sound with a tad more detail and bass oomph. I sourced the tubes from the tubestore and they were excellent to deal with.

As far as 12AU7,s I have tried a bunch of them in various Cary preamps. I kind of like the RCA clear-tops if you can find them. They used to be pretty cheap. I have not tried any of the Tung-Sol re-issues yet. They might be worth a try.

I use Siemens EL-34s which I like a lot and have read a lot of good things about Mullards, EH, JJ, and cryoed Svetlana C wings. As for 12AU7s there are too many good ones out there, but Telefunken, Mullard and Amperex seem be to be the ones everyone talks about. I use NOS RCA from the '50s with the side getter. They are more reasonably priced and there is a better stock of them for easier matching.

electroharmonix 12au7's alway's seems to be, dollar to quality, a good buy. I use them and I think they sound just fine. Telefunken, if money didn't matter, would be my first choice.