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Conrad Johnson TEA2 Stock Tubes

Does anyone know what tubes are stock in the Conrad Johnson TEA2 phono preamp? I just bought this phono preamp new and was expecting to see three EH 12AX7 tubes but they look to be NOS tubes. They have no brand label except for ECC83 and flash at start up so they could be Mullards. I was going to replace the stock tubes with NOS tubes but that may not be necessary if the stock tubes are already Mullards.
mchd1

Showing 1 response by myles_b_astor

myles_b_astor's avatar
myles_b_astor
134 posts
 
Sorry to dash your hopes. They are some older Russian 12ax7s. The good news is that they are better IMHO than the newer reissue Tungsol 12ax7 being currently supplied. The only problem with the Russian tubes that I see is they are microphonic and can really go microphonic. But they are very quiet (cj selects for that) and that's a real plus if using lower output cartridges. Assume since you have 12ax7s, you didn't go for the transformer option. Neither did I in my TEA1bc.

Myles
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