6SN7 & 6CA4 Tube Recommendations for Cary AE-3 DJH

Excellent post guys.

Tube540... In my AE-3 DJH that I recently purchased, Im using RCA 6SN7 GT VT231 Gray glass. Audio Art Ic-3 IC's into a Pass Aleph 3. PC's on both are Oyaide Tunami Cryo GPX. I have not experimented as yet with any other 6SN7's.. I am using the latest Herbies Halo dampers. I very much like the RCA's. BTW.. the Oyaide's enhanced the performance of the DJH and Aleph 3 wondefully. More transparent, greater clarity, nice dynamics. Improved Soundstage and bass.

**addendum to my prior post**
This little preamp is a gem. Hopefully you are a believer in the difference power and cabling makes in a system because the DJH does respond very well with the right choices as other have mentioned here. I use exclusively Shunyata power cables in my system, and specifically a Taipain Alpha Helix on my DJH (with Mapleshade Excaliber interconnects) with excellent results. Right out of the box, the preamp sounds good, but really comes into another league when you have everything dialed in. Have fun and enjoy!

Thank you everyone for so many excellent responses. I've been banging around this hobby for about 40 years, and seen a lot of changes over the years. What hasn't changed is peoples' passion for this hobby. The Cary AE-3 DJH is poised to replace my dialed-in Sonic Frontiers Anthem Pre-1 preamp (hand tested and hand picked tubes, Herbies, dampening materials, unit recently checked by Parts Express). To answer your question Jalapenos, yes I have good wire in the system: Pro Silway interconnects, Acoustic Zen Satori speaker wire, various power cords from Shunyata to VooDoo to Synergistic. The rest of the system includes an EAD T-1000 CD transport, Bel Canto upsampling DAC, VTL-ST 80 tube amp, Paradigm Studio 100 speakers, and an older Oracle turntable with Fidelity Research arm. The CD sound is very clear and holographic, especially with voices. The challenge with the Anthem preamp has been/is finding quality QUIET 6922 tubes that can start and stay quiet (without sounding like mud). Which is why I am trying the 6sn7 route. I want to stay away from the "dark side" of tubes. When using a tube preamp and a tube amp the synergistic effect can be too dark for me. Clarity is key to my satisfaction. I may consider trying all silver cabling (one at a time) to see if I like the result(the Pro Silways are copper and silver together). Any other experiences you want to share about dialing in the Cary preamp would be appreciated. I still may send back my Anthem preamp to Parts Express for upgrading. Anyone ever use that service on their Anthem preamp?

Hi -

FWIW I had the Silway 3s between the AE3 and the amp (a Cary tube) and thought it quite swell. I am also very pleased with the Wolff Carbons and the Audience Au24 in that position - quite a contrast.

Your RCA gray glass are as good as any I auditioned, though I do like the Raytheons

I have had very good sound with 6h8c's from Upscale Audio. (Russian variation of 6ns7) - works with my system! By the way, Cary AE-3 DJH is a fine pre-amp.