Rhea V1 & V2 NOS tubes

Hi, Hope you don't mind me commenting, , as I'm not a Rhea owner, although I have read virtually every archived post present here about the Rhea, as at one time I had thought of purchasing one. I ultimately went with the Sutherland PhD instead.

Seems many have had Tube issues with this Unit, with Tube noise, noise, etc, and it made me reluctant to worry about rolling tubes, and the expense of tube rolling-experimentation to get a proper satisfactory combination.

Also don't profess to be any valve-tube expert, but from what I can gather from your post, V1 through V4 all use 12AX7 Tubes, correct? (I'll leave others to comment if other Tubes-Variants such as he 5751-CV4003 can be used.)

I'd gather that a tube with low noise, low microphonics are paramount to the best operation in the Rhea, and it is my thinking that a well built Tube with triple Mica spacers may offer better performance with lower noise- microphonics?

Perhaps give the "lowly" Shuguang 12AX7 C-9 production try? These are nicely made triple mica blackplate tubes (with halo getter), and appear to be a very decent tube, especially considering a quantity of 4 will run you about $24.

I'm not sure just how important tube matching is with the Rhea (I gather it is), and I believe there are those out there who could match these (or even Cyro if you desire) for a minimal fee.

Might be worth a try for the small outlay of cash before you indulge in the 'Funkens, Amperex, and the like? Hope this helps, Mark

I'm under the impression that yes, Tubes can be gotten directly from Aesthetix for your Rhea, and this in many ways may be the best, and easiest plan of attack for yourself.

They'll no doubt know exactly what works best with thier units, and ease the difficulty, and expense, and time of rolling NOS Tubes.

I would imagine matching does become critical with NOS Tubes, as one "assumes" the Tubes one is getting are fresh, without countless hours apon them.

With brand new fresh tubes, I'm not then so sure just how important matching is, and I'm doubting channel imbalance would then be an audible problem?

Again, I'm no expert, and welcome oter's comments about just how critical matching is with brand new fresh tubes? I also assume the most critical matching in the world will not in any way mean that a particular tube is going to be compatible, nor will guarantee that said tube is a quiet, and a good sounding tube. Mark