Name your NEW Re-Issue 12au7, 12at7, 12ax7 tubes (your favorites, and why?)


NOT about our old vintage or NOS tube stash, please.

  • That's covered 100x over for decades, on other threads. This is not about re-justifying our old stash, this is about current new tubes only, and listening again to what some of the recent re-issue tubes offer.   

.........

Name your New Re-issue FAVORITE  (12au7, 12ax7, 12at7), & why?

  • Genelex?
  • PSVANE?
  • Apos Ray?
  • Mullard?
  • Tung Sol?
  • Northern Electric?
  • others...

Thanks in advance, and before posting this, yes, I did look through old threads, this topic is scattered about. Trying here in a single thread, if interested... 

 

 

 

 

decooney

Yes, 100 hours of burn-in is recommended, I would talk to Brent if the sound remained the same after it. He closes his business on March 5th, by the way.

Post removed 

They are his top tier standard Tekefunkens and are trace curve matched. I gave them about 70-80 hours to burn in. Yes they improved but I liked the new Tung Sol’s more , hence my comment. Knowing I’ll now need a phono stage I just put them in my stash of tubes. I have about a dozen pairs of nice nos 12AU7’s for my line stage pre. 

"@buellrider97 I have about a dozen pairs of nice nos 12AU7’s for my line stage pre"

Curious to know of your other NOS vintage tubes, what is a close 2nd or 3rd to your "new" Tung Sols?

The reason I ask is I also have the new Mullard 12au7s and they are "supposed to be the same tube as the new re-issue Tung Sols with a different label" made in the same factory.  I've compared them quite a bit to my paris of NOS, PSVANE, and others.  They DO have extra body and weight to the sound, a bit more rolled off on top than ALL of my vintage 12au7s, a tad less depth and transparency, with less texture, as a tradeoff - in my two mono amps.  My amps were originally internally biased with these new tubes, and the amp designer thought they sounded "good".

I wonder if you simply found an ideal match for your components - and that's really great if so!  If yes, kinda proves its worth trying a few different tubes to get there :)

@decooney , unfortunately I’m a neophyte currently in regards to the 12AX7’s as I have the new production Tung Sol’s and the Telefunkens. My experience thus far is limited to 12AU7’s and the 6DJ8/6N1P/ ECC88 tubes plus some power and rectifier tubes. In regards to the 12AU7’s , I purchased a Rogue RP-1 and a Had Inspire 8-9 years ago to power some Zu Omens fed with a Schiit Yiggy DAC. The RP-1 came with standard issue JJ’s which I thoroughly broke in. I first tried RCA JRC 6189’s , and liked the improvement. I then went Tekefunken and wow ! Then I tried some Hammond labeled Mullards and it sounded like someone threw a blanket over my system, like when we hit the Dolby button on the cassette deck. 😆 I then tried the Seimens Nickle plates and they are just like Tekefunkens but the top 25-30% of the frequency range is more forward and too bright for me system in my room. I’ve also tried Tungsram and EI. In my Had amp it has a single 6DJ8 input tube and I’ve tried Seimens CCa, Philips SQ ,Mullard ( labeled GE ), Philips ecg, Vashod. I learned early on the I liked the Tekefunken sound and stayed on that path. I currently have a quad of Telefunkens in G-73r, Tektronix and standard smooth plates. Also a quad of Seimens Nickle plates, the RCA’s and the Mullards. I have not tried Mazda, Brimar, Amperex pinched waist. Until recently I ran the Had amp and I acquired 7-8 pairs of nos power tubes and 5-6 nos rectifier tubes. In switching to new to me Rogue M-180’s and the Hera pre I’m now looking at running 22 tubes and seriously looking at new production tubes. The Hera takes 8 6H1P’s and Russian Rockets are $200-300 per , I’m running Sovtek. Ha ha. So I’m listening intently on input to a very applicable question. Cheers to all , Mike B.