Audphile, were those all new in box tubes you compared? Differences can be due to age of the tube. Tubes lose transconductance as they age. But I certainly do not doubt you hear what you hear. I hear differences between a 12AU7 and a 12FQ7 used as a CF in my Quicksilver preamp, even though those tubes have identical specs. The FQ does draw twice the filament current of the AU, so somewhere in there may be a key to the sonic differences. The difference is decidedly in favor of the FQ way over the AU, in this case. My other point was that the sonic difference probably would be lessened in the presence of a CCS, and for the overall better than eithr tube without a CCS.
Lab12 Melto 2 - tube rolling
Just acquired a well cared for Melto 2. Wanted to give a tube phono stage a try in my system.
The unit comes with stock 2 Electro Harmonics 6922 and 2 OTK1 Russian military 6n23p EB tubes.
I’d like to hear from the Melto 2 owners, or owners of phono stages that utilize 6922 tubes, about your experience with replacing EH 6922 with better tubes.
Sound characteristics - what changed, what was the improvement?
Considering current production Gold Lions as I remember liking them in the Rogue line stage…but those were 12AU7 and not 6922.
Table/cart - VPI Prime X/Hana Umami Blue
Cables - kimber carbon phono from table to Melto2, kimber carbon XLR from phono stage to integrated
Any thoughts?
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@lewm the tubes I borrowed from my buddy: Siemens are from 1976, the Russian 6H23P EB are between 20-30 years old. I ordered the current production Gold Lions to baseline against the NOS and help with the decision making process on how to proceed.
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Thanks @curiousjim Looks like Brent Jesse sold his business when he retired so the new owner will be restarting the orders soon. I’ll investigate the amperex and bugle boy. Plenty of variations there at different prices for this tube. I used to run ARC preamp with Bugle Boy years ago. They were definitely an improvement over the sovtek and EH. |
- 59 posts total