[ted_b]

OK, so anybody who has prior experience with 6SN7's, or know a good reasonable priced pair of 6SN7's, or have a pair they want to trial in here??   

[Bigfish]

OK, so anybody who has prior experience with 6SN7's, or know a good reasonable priced pair of 6SN7's, or have a pair they want to trial in here??   

Ted:

The holy grail of 6SN7's are the Tung-Sol Round Plates.  They are nearly as expensive as the MB- GZ-34's. 

Ken

[rydenfan]

OK, so anybody who has prior experience with 6SN7's, or know a good reasonable priced pair of 6SN7's, or have a pair they want to trial in here??   

Ted, call Brent. He and I discussed this before when you and I were searching for the adapter. He has a pretty big inventory of 6SN7's.

[Wayne1]

Ted,

While you are trolling around for octals, you might want to pick up the octal version of the 6H30. I have heard VERY good things about the tube in that package.

You all realize the "stock" adapter is the start. There is enough room inside the adapter for at least 4) Bybee Purifiers 

I could also use different wire to connect the socket to the base. I could even add a resistor or two to adjust the bias for a particular tube.

The possibility exists that you might need a separate adapter for each tube you use.

 

[ted_b]

OK, so anybody who has prior experience with 6SN7's, or know a good reasonable priced pair of 6SN7's, or have a pair they want to trial in here??   

Ted, call Brent. He and I discussed this before when you and I were searching for the adapter. He has a pretty big inventory of 6SN7's.

Yeah, actually he and I have discussed this at length.  I have a whole list of tubes I'm trolling for:
VT-231 TS round plates
VT-231 RCA black plates
A variety of VT-231 Sylvanias, KenRads, etc (I have Kenrads and CBS/Hytron coming)
6SN7GT RCA silver label bottom getters (I won a pair on Ebay about 2 weeks ago and have them on their way)

I just asked the AC'ers to see if any other diamonds popped up from the rough.

[Bigfish]

Ted:

I and I am certain others will be interested in your reports on how the 6SN7's compare to the normal variety of signal tubes in the Transporter.  To bad we can not use the 12SN7's because they are dirt cheap in comparison to the 6SN7's.

Ken

[Wayne1]

No offense intended to Dan, but it is possible to use a 12 volt filament transformer to give even more options for tube rolling.

If anyone wishes to discuss this, I do suggest it be moved away from this thread.

[zybar]

OK, so anybody who has prior experience with 6SN7's, or know a good reasonable priced pair of 6SN7's, or have a pair they want to trial in here??   

I have a good amount of experience rolling 6SN7's in my Atma-Sphere amps and have a pretty decent stash.

I could probably lend you some after you verify that this doesn't eat up tubes. 

In the meantime, here is a link that describes the sound of many of the best tubes:

http://home.att.net/~chimeraone/6sn7sound.html

George

[ted_b]

George,
Thanks for the offer.  I'll let you know.

I've been using that link to get educated over the past few weeks.   Thx

[mikel51]

I'll be very curious about how you rate the 6sn7s.  I have a pretty nice collection of different types that I run in my BATVK75SE.  I am running Ken Rads right now, but think I like the previous set of Ratheons a bit more.  Now I have a bunch of sylvania 6sn7W or WGT, raytheon and and tung sols for some time when I feel like changing them out.  In the BAT, they are drivers and not as critical for quality and low noise as they might be in the Transporter.

[ted_b]

George mentioned favoring the Raytheons too.  (I love my Raytheon 6CG7's...no relation).  I'll look for some.  Black flat plate vt-231's?

[tomm]

ted_b,
Do you get noise from the 6cg7 tubes?  I tried the Sylvania & RCA 6cg7 in the LS36.5 and I can hear the noise from across the room.  But the 6H30P tubes were dead quiet. Thanks.

[ted_b]

The LS should use 6H30's ONLY!!  Do not use others (other than variants like the DR's).  The 6CG7's (and every other signal tube talked about in THIS thread) are for the Transporter, NOT the LS 36.5.   This is a TP tube rolling thread.  Using 6CG7's in the LS will be noise city.....and won't work.

[funkmonkey]

Not only noise, but I believe that Dan said using errant tubes could damage the LS 36.5.  I asked him about starting a thread for rolling in the LS 36.5, and he explained that it would be a rather short one.  Signal tubes would only be 6H30's, and rectifiers are limited to what can fit inside the enclosure...  GZ34, perhaps a 5U4GB but I think that even may be a little tall.

I stuck the Rogers 5U4G in my transporter today, crossed my fingers and fired it up.  It worked!  The free tube turned out to be a fully functioning one.  I let it play most of the day today, just to put some time on it, so no comments on sound yet...  it looks cool though, a smaller version of the big bottle HW I had in there for the past couple of days.  In terms of construction, it looks similar to the ST shaped Raytheon 5U4G that was pictured a few pages back...

Are there any other options for signal tubes in the Transporter that are not on this list?:

6H30
6BQ7
6FQ7
6CG7
6N1P

[tomm]

Thanks people on the tubes for the LS.  I won't look much further on this.  I have a couple of fat bottle rectifier tubes and they are slightly too tall for the unit.

[mikel51]

George mentioned favoring the Raytheons too.  (I love my Raytheon 6CG7's...no relation).  I'll look for some.  Black flat plate vt-231's?

Let us know how the tube adapter works.  If it doesn't blow up the transporter or the tubes, I might be willing to find a few orphan pairs of 6sn7 for you to report to us on how they sound in the TP

[Mr P]

Lapsan, what we are looking for is the mesh plate version which they are out of stock on. I am not sure how the solid plate and the mesh plate compare.

David - in an earlier post Mr P (Mark) mentioned he had both the mesh and solid plate versions, we'll get an idea of the differences (if any) when he posts his findings. Phil

I completed my comparison of the Emission Lab 5U4G solid plate and mesh plate tubes in my Transporter this afternoon.  This activity was originally planned for yesterday afternoon, but a power outage due to high winds put that plan on hold.  Just another reason to get off the grid. 

During the comparison I used two songs I was very familiar with.  The first was vocal/acoustic based, “Cry of a Tiny Baby” off the Columbia Records Radio Hour CD.  The second was “New South Africa” off the Live Art CD by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.  This song has a lot going on instrumentally.   

To compare I listened to a song three times with the solid plate tube, changed to the mesh plate tube, let it warm up, listened to the same song two times, changed back to the solid plate, let it warm up and listened to the same song one more time.  I did this for each of the two songs.  My system had been playing for 90 minutes prior to starting.  All tubes had >100 hours on them.

The differences in my system were subtle.  The solid plate was a little more incisive/tighter with a touch more drive, most noticeable in the bass.  The stage presentation with the mesh plate plate was slightly further back than with the solid plate, even with the front of my speakers instead of slightly in front of them.  There were a couple of instances where I thought I heard a little more resolution with the mesh plate.  That was about it.  In my system these were not huge differences.  For me the solid plate will be my main tube as my system is a little laid back at this time.

A couple of other notes.  In my system the RCA Cleartops are magic with either the mesh plate or solid plate EM Lab 5U4G.  While the 6N1Ps provided a little more resolution, there is no comparison in the tone and timbre areas.  I have not tried the 6H30DRs and to be honest I’m in no hurry.  This tube combination along with the Hyper-Drive mod has sent my system to new level.  Also, the two 5U4Gs in series in my system was too much of a good thing.  I experimented with putting one in the Transporter and one in my amplifier.  While the sound was not bad, it was clearly better with just the one in the Transporter. 

Disclaimer - Results are based on my system and YMMV in yours.

System = Transporter with Hyper Drive Mod - First Sound Presence Mk II Preamp - Yamamoto 300B SET amp - Zu Definition Pro Mk II Speakers

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mark

 

[Philistine]

Mark, thanks for taking the time to do this and report your findings - looks like we'll all be buying both the solid and mesh plate versions
On a serious note what I take from your findings are that you found the solid plate marginally better, but you could live with either of them.
Phil

[Mr P]

Mark, thanks for taking the time to do this and report your findings - looks like we'll all be buying both the solid and mesh plate versions
On a serious note what I take from your findings are that you found the solid plate marginally better, but you could live with either of them.
Phil

Phil - For my system the solid plate is slightly better.  If my system was a little on the forward side I would opt for the mesh plate as my first choice.  I think we are into fine tuning here.   

[Mr P]

Mark, thanks for taking the time to do this and report your findings - looks like we'll all be buying both the solid and mesh plate versions
On a serious note what I take from your findings are that you found the solid plate marginally better, but you could live with either of them.
Phil

Phil - Forgot to answer the last part of your question.  Yes I can live with either of them.  I will keep the mesh plate as my backup and for fine tuning if my system gets a little too forward in the future. 

Mark