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Genuine Telefunken?

The last few years I have really enjoyed the exceptional sound of my tube audio equipment. After reading as much as possible on the net about " NOS " tubes, have narrowed it down to Telefunken 12AX7 and 12AU7 for my Jadis DPL preamp, but now I am really confused and can't believe all the fake ones being passed on for the authentic tubes. I have three questions! 1.) What exactly should I look for on genuine Telefunkens of these #'s, should they all have gold pins? 2.)Is it possible to stumble upon a genuine NOS Telefunken 12AX7? and 3.) Is it just a matter of preference of smooth plate verses ribbed plate? Or is one better than the other? I am new to experimenting with tubes and would love any opinions or comments. Maybe I should just consider a used tube being they have such a long long life. Thanks, Deb
noguerol
sirspeedy
738 posts
 
Jafox,I am happy for your "always interesting" response,except this time around you may have cost me some money. -:)

Worth replacing my CCa's with the PW's?
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Tele 12AX7 and 12AU7 do not generally come with gold pins, so this is not a sign of authenticity. The smooth plate 12AX7 does sound somewhat different from the ribbed plate and is more highly valued. Will it sound better in your rig? Who knows, the whole thing is completely system dependent.
racamuti's avatar
racamuti
257 posts
 
I suggest if you are going to buy tubes, that you use a tube dealer that has a good track record, and not just some guy selling a few tubes. Research some of the web based tube vendors and pick one that you feel comfortable with. You might pay a little more but I just consider it like insurance. The tubes that you put in your pre-amp should not be noisy and most of the good vendors will rate them phono, line or driver stage with phono being the least noisy. I personally like- Vintage Tube Services and have never gotten a noisy tube from him. I have also bought tubes on E-Bay that were so noisy that in my pre-amp they were useless,even though they were new old stock. Just my 2 cents
hotsauce
108 posts
 
Tele used to relabel their tubes as 'The Fisher' You will find 12ax7 smoothplates so marked. Quite a bit cheaper than those marked tele too.

John C.
jafox
1,348 posts
 
Sirspeedy - I was hoping to cost you some money last time with a new Hyperphono cable. 8-)~ A pair of PW's is small fry to that. As for CCAs, I have a pair of Valvo PW CCAs. I did not compare these to the Amperex 6922 PW in the Aria line stage as the 7062 here made this a moot point. And the CCAs I have are too noisy for the Aria phono stage so they landed in the CAT amps where they are very nice. I guess I could compare the Amperex to the CCAs in the amps. If I get motivated to do try this, I'll let you know. But I got a special D-getter pair of 7062's today from a friend so I'm a happy camper to play.
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