Which 6AQ5

[dstockwell]

Planning on building poinz linestage and wonder which choice.

RCA
Svetlana
(JAN) GE
AEL
Sylvania
Raytheon

[Eli Duttman]

I say RCA. Remember, RCA 6V6s have a fabulous reputation and the 6AQ5 is a 6V6 in a 7 pin mini bottle.

RCA is always a good choice. The Harrison, NJ plant turned out GOOD tubes, type after type after type.

[Trout]

Originally posted by dstockwell
Planning on building poinz linestage and wonder which choice.

RCA
Svetlana
(JAN) GE
AEL
Sylvania
Raytheon

RCA!! they clearly out-preform the others in sound and more importantly life cycle.

I tryd GE's but in my guitar amp enviroment they were short lived.
The Raytheon's I have just dont seem to have very good low end (not that any 6AQ5 has great low end) But Then again, my application was different. If you have RCA's, Go with them.
Gene

[tubelab.com]

I have a lot of military surplus 6AQ5's. I have been using, and abusing these over the past few months in the process of designing a new amplifier circuit. Many variations of this circuit has been tested with several types of tubes, in HiFi and guitar applications. I have had good luck with the JAN GE 6005. Close behind (and better sounding in HiFi) is the RCA 6AQ5. The regular GE 6AQ5's have been reliable for me, although I did melt one. None ever arced dispite severe abuse. I did have two Sylvania's spark out, one fatally. I have only tried a few Raytheon's, they didn't blow up, but didn't impress me either. I have not tried any of the others on your list. I have tried a few Japanese 6AQ5's with poor results.

In a line stage you will be operating the tube in a very conservative range of bias, any of these tubes should give good service, so choose on the basis of sound. This points at RCA. These tubes can be found cheap, so you can try several.

[dstockwell]

Thanks, RCA it is.