• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

12AX7WA

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jump to Latest
#2
Sovtek 12AX7WA?
What 'kind' of pre-amp?
IMO, dark sounding somewhat and slightly lower gain than most NOS 12AX7A's. Fairly quiet. I've used them in my VTL Ultimate clone and have used better and worse. I guess it would depend on how and where you used them. All of the WB's I've used (4) popped loudly on various occasions.

Wayne
 
#5
I personally haven't tried them because everything I have read about their sound is bad . They are reputed to be fairly reliable and long lasting. I really like the EHs and I have a mono amp with NOS RCAs that sound great too. Telefunken NOS are supposedly the best sounding but cost like $50.00 per
Steve
 
#6
Hi Steve,
I refuse to pay $50.00 for a signal tube!

They are modeled after the RCA's. I do have many old and NOS tubes to compare. I can't see anything wrong with Electroharmonix in comparison. Worth a try some year.

Add to that, they are quiet and not generally microphonic.

-Chris
 
#9
@Valve

Your welcome! I might add I only tried them because they were on sale at the time, buy one get one free deal. I like the WB version better for Hi-Fi, they sound better. A little punchier, better low end (higher gain) but for the popping... I haven't bought any since. If you can't afford some of the boutique toobs try the JJ's, Electro-Harmonix (EH), Sovtek 12AX7S (spiral filament), Ei's (Yugo's) good sounding if you can find one(s) that aren't microphonic. Ei gold pins... don't know if that helps any!
Right now I'm using a pair of gray plate (short) RCA's circa late 1950's. They were salvaged from an EICO ST40S. Unfortunately one of the pair throws fits of spewing out noise occasionally. :xeye:

Wayne
 
#11
Hi all,
Just to clarify, I was talking about the WAs when I said I heard bad review not the immediately preceeding post about the Electro Harmonix tubes. I just bought all new Ehs for an Eico HF81 and they sound fantastic. The old RCAs are great too for the money (about the same as new Ehs if your lucky).
Steve
 
#14
He said "woody"

Hi burnedfingers

Woody? What do you mean by that? I've found that in my VTL Ultimate clone which is heavy on NFB BTW, that they sound bright and punchy, more so than most of the others I've tried. They also seem to have higher gain. I haven't used them in the phono eq section yet as my turntable is temp retired at this time. This is how I determine the gain of various 12AX7 types/brands as I measure the gain, RIAA tracking error, typically at the low end whenever I roll in different types. As I've stated the ones that I have are microphonic, usually it's just one of the sections. I guess that the 'woody' sound would show up if you use them without heavy NFB or in a guitar amplifier.

Thanks for your input though! 🙂

Wayne
 
#15
I should have said woolly not woody. My first tube preamp was purchased from a company in China and it contained 3) 12AX7's in the circuit. There was a big difference between the sound of it with the EI's and the GE's I put in as replacements. I sold the preamp quickly after joining this site and constructing a DIy from help and information here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom