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Anybody roll with this tube? Any suggestions? RCA? Sylvania? GE? Amperex? Seems that there's lots of variations in the tube from the '50s onward.
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Myles B. Astor, PhD, Administrator
Senior Editor, Positive-Feedback.com
________________________________________
-Zellaton Plural Evo speakers
-Goldmund Telos 440 and 1000 Nextgen mono amps
-Goldmund Mimesis 37S Nextgen preamplifier
-Doshi EVO and Goldmund PH3.8 phonostage
-VPI Vanquish direct-drive turntable
-VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy dual pivot tonearm, VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy gimballed and SAT LM-12 arm
-Lyra Atlas SL Lambda, vdh Colibri Master Signature, Mutech Hayabusa,
-Technics RS1506 with Flux Magnetic heads, Doshi V3.0 tape stage (balanced)
-Assorted cables including Skogrand, Kubala-Sosna, Audience FrontRow; Audience FrontRow, Genesis Advanced Technologies , Goldmund and Ensemble Power Cords
-Accessories including Stillpoint Aperture panels, Cathedral Sound panels, Furutech NCF Nano AC receptacles; Silver Circle Tchaik 6 PLC, Symposium ISIS and SRA Craz 3 racks, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Symposium Ultra and assorted SRA OHIO Class 2.3+ platforms. -
RCA for me Myles
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Myles B. Astor, PhD, Administrator
Senior Editor, Positive-Feedback.com
________________________________________
-Zellaton Plural Evo speakers
-Goldmund Telos 440 and 1000 Nextgen mono amps
-Goldmund Mimesis 37S Nextgen preamplifier
-Doshi EVO and Goldmund PH3.8 phonostage
-VPI Vanquish direct-drive turntable
-VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy dual pivot tonearm, VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy gimballed and SAT LM-12 arm
-Lyra Atlas SL Lambda, vdh Colibri Master Signature, Mutech Hayabusa,
-Technics RS1506 with Flux Magnetic heads, Doshi V3.0 tape stage (balanced)
-Assorted cables including Skogrand, Kubala-Sosna, Audience FrontRow; Audience FrontRow, Genesis Advanced Technologies , Goldmund and Ensemble Power Cords
-Accessories including Stillpoint Aperture panels, Cathedral Sound panels, Furutech NCF Nano AC receptacles; Silver Circle Tchaik 6 PLC, Symposium ISIS and SRA Craz 3 racks, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Symposium Ultra and assorted SRA OHIO Class 2.3+ platforms.Comment
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Not a tube I use anymore, I do have a bunch stashed. However, my experience was that the '50s RCA square getter long black plates had both richness in tone and detail that I liked. The GEs tend to be very bland or sterile and the Sylvanias are in between.
This is an inexpensive tube relatively, so best advice is to go to ebay or the like and grab a few and try.
Phono: Aesthetix Io Eclipse with 2 Power Supplies and Volume controls
Custom Slagle Silver Autoformer Volume control
Brinkmann Balance & RonT Tube Power supply with Kuzma 4-point ,FR64S, .Koetsu Jade Platinum,Etsuro Gold, DaVa FA-1 Goldfinger Statement, KLAUDIO RCM, HRSM3X
Amps: Custom Direct Drive, Wyetech Topaz, Futterman H3 Quad II,Citation II, Marantz 8b, 5 ,2. Bedini 25/25
Otari Bx5050II , DeHavlland 222
Chord DAVE, MScaler, FARAD linear power supply mod, OPTO-DX optical connection
Pre-Amps:Marantz 7, Marantz Model 1 Consolette Pair
Speakers: Beveridge Model 3 Direct Drive amps, REL S/2 x 2, Quad ESL pairComment
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I prefer the Brimar 13D6 or the Brimar 12BH7.
Speakers: Vandersteen Model 7s, 4 M&K ST-150Ts, 1 VCC-5; Amplification: 2 Vandersteen M7-HPAs, CI Audio D200 MKII, Ayre V-6xe; Preamp: Doshi Audio Line Stage v3.0; Phono Pre: Doshi Audio V3 Phono Pre; Analog: Wave Kinetics NVS; Durand Telos and SME 3012R Tonearms, Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement v2; Miyajima Zero; Reel to Reel: Technics RS-1500; Doshi Tape Pre-Amp; Studer A810; Studer A812; Tascam BR-20; Multi-channel: Bryston SP-3; Digital: Custom PC> Lampizator PacificComment
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Speakers: Vandersteen Model 7s, 4 M&K ST-150Ts, 1 VCC-5; Amplification: 2 Vandersteen M7-HPAs, CI Audio D200 MKII, Ayre V-6xe; Preamp: Doshi Audio Line Stage v3.0; Phono Pre: Doshi Audio V3 Phono Pre; Analog: Wave Kinetics NVS; Durand Telos and SME 3012R Tonearms, Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement v2; Miyajima Zero; Reel to Reel: Technics RS-1500; Doshi Tape Pre-Amp; Studer A810; Studer A812; Tascam BR-20; Multi-channel: Bryston SP-3; Digital: Custom PC> Lampizator PacificComment
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RCA's for me, but I abandoned the 12 volt sub-miniatures for the 6 volt octals. Now, I am going further back in time to the single triode per bottle tubes.Comment
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In the interim, found this blog on 12BH7 tubes.
Myles B. Astor, PhD, Administrator
Senior Editor, Positive-Feedback.com
________________________________________
-Zellaton Plural Evo speakers
-Goldmund Telos 440 and 1000 Nextgen mono amps
-Goldmund Mimesis 37S Nextgen preamplifier
-Doshi EVO and Goldmund PH3.8 phonostage
-VPI Vanquish direct-drive turntable
-VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy dual pivot tonearm, VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy gimballed and SAT LM-12 arm
-Lyra Atlas SL Lambda, vdh Colibri Master Signature, Mutech Hayabusa,
-Technics RS1506 with Flux Magnetic heads, Doshi V3.0 tape stage (balanced)
-Assorted cables including Skogrand, Kubala-Sosna, Audience FrontRow; Audience FrontRow, Genesis Advanced Technologies , Goldmund and Ensemble Power Cords
-Accessories including Stillpoint Aperture panels, Cathedral Sound panels, Furutech NCF Nano AC receptacles; Silver Circle Tchaik 6 PLC, Symposium ISIS and SRA Craz 3 racks, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Symposium Ultra and assorted SRA OHIO Class 2.3+ platforms.Comment
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So I picked up a pair of new grey plate RCAs. I couldn't listen to them for more than 10 hrs before I had to pull them out of the tapestage.
At at first they sounded weird. It was like you got the envelope of air around the instrument; the body of instrument was MIA. The bass was overblown and a little loose making cellos sound like double basses.
As the hours wore on, the bass tightened up but was still a little romantic sounding. On the plus side, the "RCAs " had a lot more air and subtle information and cues.
The straw that broke the camel's was, however, the mid and upper midrange. There was a metallic glean that was not going to go away no matter how many hours I put on the tubes. Pianos sounded like Schroeder's piano. Clangy. Spoke with Nick Doshi and he mentioned these RCA gray plate 12BH7s might not be RCA at all but relabeled GE tubes. When he said that I had that aha moment. That made sense because never heard a GE tube that I liked nor one that didn't sound bright.
So guess maybe I'll try and find a pair of early Sylvanias since this blogger felt they sounded better than the RCAs. That one rare time too. Did notice Full Music from China have a new 12BH7 but is only available right now from China or HK.Myles B. Astor, PhD, Administrator
Senior Editor, Positive-Feedback.com
________________________________________
-Zellaton Plural Evo speakers
-Goldmund Telos 440 and 1000 Nextgen mono amps
-Goldmund Mimesis 37S Nextgen preamplifier
-Doshi EVO and Goldmund PH3.8 phonostage
-VPI Vanquish direct-drive turntable
-VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy dual pivot tonearm, VPI 12-inch 3D Fat Boy gimballed and SAT LM-12 arm
-Lyra Atlas SL Lambda, vdh Colibri Master Signature, Mutech Hayabusa,
-Technics RS1506 with Flux Magnetic heads, Doshi V3.0 tape stage (balanced)
-Assorted cables including Skogrand, Kubala-Sosna, Audience FrontRow; Audience FrontRow, Genesis Advanced Technologies , Goldmund and Ensemble Power Cords
-Accessories including Stillpoint Aperture panels, Cathedral Sound panels, Furutech NCF Nano AC receptacles; Silver Circle Tchaik 6 PLC, Symposium ISIS and SRA Craz 3 racks, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Symposium Ultra and assorted SRA OHIO Class 2.3+ platforms.Comment
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Myles,
Are you using these as driver tubes? Not sure if this info will relate but in two different amps as driver tubes, the early 50's Hytron (black plates, copper grid posts and near vertical square getter) were the clear, pun intended, winner. Never tried the newer grey plate RCA's so I can't compare sound. Some Raytheon black plates came in second. The RCA black plates I tried were nice but too soft sounding for me. The Hytrons had a clean but not clinical sound top top bottom. Nice dynamics and energy. They might not have been the very best in bass but everywhere else they took the trophy.
Do your grey plate RCA's have etched writing on the glass? if so, you can be 99% sure they are made by GE. Some later CBS/Hytron 12BH7's were relabeled GE's but those were black plates.Comment
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