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Rolled some 12ax7's recently...

Hi All,
I went through my supply of 12ax7's recently and found some goodies.
I recently compared Bugle Boys to Telefunkens in the phono stage of my pre-amp. Interesting (to me, at least). I found the Telefunkens to be nice sounding; very clean and clear, very nice detail, over all a very nice sounding tube. The Bugle Boys, however, were magical! WOW! Timbre was so much more apparent. The soundstage depth and width increased; especially the depth. The music seemed to come alive and glow. It was much more captivating.
I found such a dramatic difference between two high quality tubes very interesting.
I have yet to try 10m's, and 70's Mullards that I found. I will report when I do...
By the way, NOS Sylvania's sound nice in the line-level stage. All tubes reported are vintage NOS. I match them with my tube tester. And, I do not change the volume setting between tube brands tested.
Any comments are more than welcomed! I appreciate any information on your experiences with 12ax7's. The price of some of these NOS is incredible; I am glad to have these nice examples in my collection!
Cheers.
bicycle_man
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,517 posts
 
Did you ever read this: http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/d.pl?audio/faq/joes-tubes.html
My own ranking of 12AX7's (and 5751's) is slightly different than Joe's, but one thing I totally agree with, is that even the best 12AX7's are kind of grainy compared to the best 5751's -- to the point that I don't even bother with 12AX7's anymore.

And when it comes to phonostages, 5751's are definitely the way to go (for low noise and great detail.) It's true that 5751's are spec'd at 70-80% the gain of 12AX7's (driven at full bore!) but no one has ever reported a problem on that score, not even in phonostages where gain is so important.
.
tpsonic
1,092 posts
 
Try the Shuguang G-9s.They have,unfortunately been discontinued.As for the Mullards,I prefered the military CV-4004s-more "sparkle/life" in the upper octaves.
chazzbo
1,006 posts
 
Wonder if types of Telefunken make a difference.Heard this before and some even like Mazda over either.To given godlike status of Telefunken again wondering if type makes difference.
Chazz
velo62
255 posts
 
Philips 12ax7wa ECG floats my boat, a fantastic tube will lots of air and weight in bass.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,262 posts
 
thanks Nsgarch a hellofa read!
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