I now have had the opportunity to roll a few sets of tubes.
Standard: Sounds OK. lacking a little in resolution and at the extremes. Also not that much air around voices and instruments.
JJ Tesla Current Manufacture: Much like the standard Japanese but with greate bass depth and just a tad more detailed.
Philips JAN NOS: Smoothest midrange but lacking in basss weigth and in the tope end. However if you really are put off by digititus this may be the valve for you.
Tesla NOS from the 70's: Don't mistake for JJ Teslas. Bone crunching bass, highly detailed, great depth and imaging.
A little thinner through the mid range than Philips.
Siemens: Leaving the best to last. Same incredibly bass as the Tesla's but with greater resolution. In fact these are the most resolving tubes, giving great detail without hash or harshness. Amazing air bewteen instruments and voices make everything sound more life like. Good imaging. Depth of images not as deep as Tesla's but imgages are more 3D.
Would love to hear of other peoples experience.
By the way, the purchase of and placement of the amp on a Spider Rack from Finite Elements (German) has made the most dramatic improvements of all the tweaks I have tried.
What are some of the racks that others are using?
For those who are so interested my set up at the moment is:
Finite Element Spider Rack
Audionet Art V2 Cd Player (also German)
DK Design Integrated Amp V2 (replaced Audio Research Valves Separates)
Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor on dedicated stands.
Cabling is DK Design Interconnect and Osborn Datalink Speaker Cable. |
