yaqin mc100b tube rolling


hi all,

ok i`m new to tube amplifiers, in fact i`ve not owned a hifi for a good few years so i thought i`d take the plunge and see whats out there.

after some pretty exhaustive auditioning and plenty of reading and research i decided to go for the yaqin amp. the rest of my system consists of.....

musical fidelity nu-vista 3d cd player
yaqin mc100b amplifier
quad 12L2 speakers sitting on target R5 stands
chord anthem2 interconnects
chord oddessey2 speaker wires (4 lengths)

i bought the amp secondhand and the tubes were worn and needed replacing.

i bought 4 x electro harmonix KT88EH`s
2 x shuguang psvane 12AX7T`s (grant fidelity matched)
i`ve bought a variety of 6sn7`s to test out. i bought several matched pairs. brimar 6sn7gty/cv1988, rca vt231, rca 6sn7gt, sylvania 6sn7gtb and shuguang 6n8p.

so far the brimar/shuguang combination is the best sounding. they give an excellent and pin point soundstage, the sound is very clear indeed, you can hear quite a way into recordings and there is very good depth to the soundstage. voices are solid and natural. acoustic guitars have a ring to them. dave gilmours guitar work on the track "where we start" off his solo cd on an island has a really beautiful tone to it with an added very slight warmth and depth. the brimars have a clear yet warm sound and sound slightly laid back. the shuguangs have a very clear up front sound and the combination of these two tubes is a pretty good matching. my only quibble is i could do with a bit more bass. i`m not saying the bass i get is inadequate, i could just do with a bit more.

i tried the brimars with the rca vt231`s. not a very good matching! way too much warmth going on here for me and lacks excitement. less detail too. mind you i will say, i listened to the xrcd recording i have of eva cassidy`s songbird and this cd has never sounded so good! but pretty much everything else i listened to didn`t really impress me that much. not sure what classical music sounds like with this combination. i didn`t think to listen to any!

i tried the sylvania gtb/rca 6sn7gt combination. not as much clarity or information as the brimar/shuguang combo but still very very nice sounding. nice deep bass, very nice soundstage, natural sounding voices. all in all a very nice sounding tone all the way through. beautiful and sweet top end too.

i tried the rca vt231/rca 6sn7gt combination. not really all that impressed. lots of information but just a bit dull sounding. lacks a bit of get up n go!

that`s as far as i have got so far in tube rolling. anyone else that has this amp have any tube combinations that works for them? also as i am new to valve amps and tube rolling, are there any other 6sn7 type tubes i should look out for?

many thanks in advance guys
grayf

Showing 1 response by olds442111

Has anyone tried any varieties of 12at7 up front in these amps? Or just too little gain?