Check the thread on Calypso tubes, I would assume this would apply to the Rhea as well, very similar design. I had great luck in my Calypso with cryo tubes from tubeman.com that were not very expensive compared to some of the alternatives (Amperex, Telefunken, Mullard etc.) that are WAAAY pricey and hard to get a good matched pair.
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I've got the same problem. Please let me know what you find out. I've bought some NOS Telefunkens (which were touted by their collector/seller as being as quiet as I could hope to obtain). While they did lower the "perceived" background noise "ever-so-slightly" compared with the factory-stock Sovteks, their gain was also correspondingly slightly lower. Also, when the output signal is RTSA'd in A/B comparisons (Sovtek in the L chanel, & Telefunkens in the R ch), the German Telefunkens' background was barely lower in the treble freqs than the Rusian tubes, but barely higher in the bass freqs. So it roughly averaged out (but red-shifted in spectrum). I have been told by several Rhea experts that a noise penalty is just the price we have to pay for a phono pre whose amplification is simultaneously pure-triode, class-A, OTL, zero-feedback, & high-gain. Still, like you, I need less noise, so still searching for quieter tubes. The Rhea's build-quality & features are so good, its sonic texture is so liquid, its tonal balance is so neutral, its freq & dynamic ranges are so wide, & its phase-coherence is so linear...That I don't want to give up on this superlative product. I hope that the tube rush can be reduced by @ least half of what I now have. RiP [email protected] |
I don't think you are going to get away from the tube noise with ANY NOC tubes with the rhea. I have tried the Rhea twice at home with my dyna XV-1 and while it sounds good, I personally could not live the tube noise. If you are looking at another tube phono stage, the ARC PH7 is amazing and quiet to boot. Just make sure you have an active line stage as it only has 57db of gain. cheers |
Well since I originally posted my question re low noise tubes, I've tried a host of NOS tubes. I'm now using Phillips ECC83 from v1 through v4 with very good results. Neutral, reasonably quiet and extremely revealing. With the exception of a set of GE5751 in the v1 position, I suspect it won't get much better. I am however assembling the K&K SE phono stage and am looking forward to it's performance. |