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Tube rolling suggestions for Unison Unico

Hi folks,

I have a new Unico, which is wonderful, and I'd like to hear about your experiences rolling tubes. The stock Phillips JAN 12au7s are very dynamic and compelling, but I'd like a little bit less energy up top. I tried a pair of Siemens "Rohre" ECC82s, but while they do remove a bit of the top end brightness, they dull the dynamics and collapse the soundstage.

Is there anything out there that will give me the best of both worlds (a bit of shading on top, but with excellent dynamics and a good sense of air)? I'm looking to spend $100 absolute max for a matched pair, and I'd love to get away with much less.

The rest of my system:
Silverline SR15 monitors
Audio Refinement CD Alpha
Analysis Plus cabling
Kenwood KD-500 TT with Rega 300 arm

Many thanks!
lousyreeds1

Showing 1 response by drminky

drminky
4 posts
 
In my unico I've tried several different tubes. In my system, my experiences are:
Radiotechnique: Beautiful airy treble - no bass at all
Mullards: Too Dark and syrupy for my 'modern' taste in music.. fantastic with pre-1970s music recorded on valve equipment though (loves my bossa nova collection!!)
Brimar 13D5: Better balanced than the Mullards I had..still the same house sound, but less so.. lots of missbass punch, high treble could use a bit more refinement
Siemens E88CC: Beautifully liquid, cyrstal clear, well balanced..perfect -EXCEPT they lack dynamics!!!
Amperex/Beckman 7316 Holland: So far, the best I've found.. Slightly drier than the siemens, but WAY more dynamic.. HUGE, precise soundstage (best of the lot), well balanced (perhaps just slightly tilted toward upper/mid, lower treble..but in a good way!).. not cheap though, but worth it!!
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