12AU7 tubes for a Rouge Audio Sphinx V3 Integrated

@dekay A harmonically rich, liquid 3D sound is exactly what I am looking for. I will reach out to Brent Jessee. 

@decooney Yes, it true that rolling tubes in any tube product is not necessary, however should bring results. If not then one has to ask what are the tubes bringing to the design. I can't believe that tube rolling in this unit wouldn't alter the presentation in some fashion. 

I will call Rouge and see what they have to say regarding this.

Save your money and buy the Rogue Pharaoh II.

You will be in A-D Heaven oh and call Hi-Fi Heaven to buy. 

Listening to Mozart 10 Variation in G Minor and it is magical. 

 https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0922/Rogue_Audio_Pharaoh_II_Integrated_Amplifier_Review.htm

@mesch the article @juanmanuelfangioii shared from enjoythemusic makes an interesting comment. I also own some of the absolute best-of-best Blackburn plant Mullard 12au7 cure-tracer close matched triodes from Brent Jesse too, similar to what @dekay may have been referring to above.

Sure, they are nice, expensive. and my other PSVANE 12au7 hold their own against them comparably, and I can run them all of the time with no worries. My amps came stock with JJs, and there are select au7s that sound much better, imo.

Noting this comment in the recent Pharaoh_II article link above, quote:

• "My comparisons of the Pharaoh integrated amps were based on using only stock tubes for evaluation. I did substitute in a couple of rare vintage NOS Mullard 12AU7 tubes in the Pharaoh I. It got me closer to Pharaoh II, but not all the way. The tubes cost $300! The people at Rogue Audio have great ears and they choose tubes to go in the production models very carefully"

When you call Rogue, maybe they can share more about why some of the more recent designs including the Pharaoh_II (reportedly) may sound better. See what they say, and why?

decooney"

I was noting the less expensive short plate 60's production @ Blackburn and Heerlen.

I actually prefer them to my older (now super expensive) long plate versions.

A modern 12au7 that interested me (reading between the lines of the reviews) was the JJ ECC802S, but having had problems with the undersized tube pins on their (JJ) 300B/2A3 tubes I never tried them (don't know if it's even a thing with their small signal tubes).

DeKay

Why NOS tubes are better than new tubes - NOS vacuum tubes

www.nosvacuumtubes.net/customer-service/nos-tubes/

​​​​interesting read...