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I'm a fan of the Ken-Rad VT231 with the staggered plates...clear and dark glass sound the same to me.LarryK
Mike,Have you tried any of the other usual suspects?VT-231 Tung-Sol, round black plates - Clean, fast, the best in everything, wide bandwidth, great resolution. If you can’t find the Music, it’s not the tube’s fault.VT-231 RCA, black plates, rich harmonic structure, beautiful timbre and voicing, wide soundstage6SN7W Sylvania (Mislabeled by me as the 6SN7WGT), black plates – Tied for second and came in first if your system sounds a little laid back, especially some single ended amplifiers – Excellent low level detail resolution, very immediate sounding with a lot of Slam. There are three types of these tubes, two large bottle types, one has a metal ring and one smaller bottle with s smaller plate structure. The smaller one has better low level detail and the larger ones have more slam.VT-231 Raytheon, black flat plates - like the Tungsol a little sweeter, nice balance of detail and timbreVT-231 Ken-Rad, flat black plates - Great Bass, drive, sweet midrange, good bandwidth andVT-231 Sylvania, black plates, wide bandwidth, well balanced, excellent sound stage and airAlso, what type of equipment are you using the tubes in?I am using my 6SN7's in Atma-Sphere MA1's and Audio Mirror SET amps.I have all of the above tubes outside of the VT-231 Tung-Sol, round black plates. The Tung-Sol's run $400 or more a pair and are just too pricey to play with.In both sets of amps, tube rolling is clearly audible and definitely influences the sound.George
I have all those tubes Zybar listed. All are very good to excellent depending on your equipment.Mike, I too have the Supratek Sauvignon and love it. IMS the Russian 1578 had great clarity but was a little thin in the midrange.My 3 favorites are the Tung-sol RP, Sylvania 6sn7w, and 52 Sylvania bad boy's (3 hole plates with copper post) these are always in heavy rotation.If you can , try the 52 Syl. not as expensive as the TS or W's. Vocals are very natural with great bass,detail,and a nice airy treble.They are a little fuller sounding then the other two.Andy at VTS has nice quiet ones which we need for our Supratek. When funds permitting, I think if you change the regulators and rectifier also, to NOS tubes your sound will improve even farther.Joe
Hello; Interesteing discussion. I was just thinking about this topic. Is the 12sn a direct interchangeable with the 6sn7?I was just going to ask if anyone has heard or compared the Russian 6n8s NOS tubes. I see that someone has posted that the 1578 is the only good variant in that series.
Quote from: BlkNotes on 20 Nov 2008, 06:46 pmHello; Interesteing discussion. I was just thinking about this topic. Is the 12sn a direct interchangeable with the 6sn7?I was just going to ask if anyone has heard or compared the Russian 6n8s NOS tubes. I see that someone has posted that the 1578 is the only good variant in that series.No, they are not interchangeable. You need a 12 volt heater. The 6n8s is a lousy tube, except in its 1578 configuration. Ask Paul Lindemann. Be very careful about what you buy because many sites are misrepresenting awful sounding 6n8s as a 1578.
Hello; Interesteing discussion. I was just thinking about this topic. Is the 12sn a direct interchangeable with the 6sn7?I was just going to ask if anyone has heard or compared the Russian 6n8s NOS tubes. I see that someone has posted that the 1578 is the only good variant in that series.As an aside---does anyone have any suggestions for the best 2A3 tubes?Cheers;BNI have heard the Raytheon 2C50 12.3V heater sounds much better than top of the line 6SN7 (round plate) if you use with a certain design with R-cores output transformers. http://www.wps.com/archives/tube-datasheets/Datasheets/Raytheon-DL-Q-7101-11-56-40M/12.JPG
My personal favourite is the RCA VT-231, but in the 12SN7 version since I'm a cheapskate DIY person. Problem is it ends up sounding too warm & fuzzy with many tube amps, which for whatever reason are already balanced to the warm side. If the tube gear is designed for neutrality then this tube works great.