What tubes for ARC LS 5 preamp - 6922/6DJ8

Hello John
and thanks ALbert and Ed

John, good seeing you here again and thanks for all the preamp advice.

I bought the LS5 mk II a year ago and love it
actually I am looking at Steve Huntley of Great Northern Sound to upgrade my mkII. http://www.greatnorthernsound.com/home.htm

Steve does significant upgrades to the ARC products. Steve used to work for Audio Research in the design phase and does significant upgrades to ARC, Wadia and other high end pieces. His philosophy is that ARC made some cost saving corner cutting and newer technology exists to make these pieces sound significantly better. Steve is from your neck of the woods in Minnesota and is very helpful. Send him an email and find out about his mod program. I have a friend who Steve did a mod on for his LS22, it was much more open and musical than the stock unit. He also is a big fan of the LS 5 in the chain of ARC products.

cheers

Tom

Be careful with the 7308s in the LS5mkI/II. I tried the
Amperex 7308 gold pins in my LS5mkII and they rang like a
bell. And these were brand new NOS hand-selected low
noise/microphonic from Kevin Deal. Nothing at all wrong
with the tubes. There's some sort of plate current
incompatibilty going on there. I would stick with 6922s
for your LS5mkI/II to be safe.

But don't be so quick to dismiss the Sovtek 6922. I've used
a lot of different 6922s in my LS5mkII. The Sovteks are
quite good. Another decent less-expensive NOS 6922 is the
JAN Philips.

amperex golden globe jan 7308s made such a difference in my ls 5 mk 2 that i retubed my vt130 w/ 7308s as well. my only comparisons are sovtek 6922 but the difference was huge so i'm shopping for more 7308s.
jon

JJ makes a 6922 that is warmer than the Sovteks and is very reasonably priced.

WOW this thread is right up my alley.
I have owned an LS5 MK II for the last few years.
I recently had it at Great Northern Sounds for the Reference upgrade package. I also run it with Amperex white label 7308's. WOW WOW WOW
All the beautiful liquid accuaracy but no grain. Not a hint. The bass is meaningful and fast. Soundstage is accurate and detailed. WOW WOW WOW

Steve Huntley is a very nice man to boot. He has a great ear and listens to good music. I saw his shop first hand and would recommend him most highly. The LS 5MK II deserves to have this upgrade done to it. It is already a classic and this modification lowers the noise floor and tweaks an already advanced platform. It is world class all over again. No fatique but not mushy. The 7308's are a must for this pre. It sucks to have to come up with 10 NOS tubes at retube time but the sound is worth the insanity.
The telefunkens sound quite good too. Happy hunting.