A couple of my Fav 12AX7's
Amperex/bugle boy,Matsushita,and Sovtek 12AX7LPS
I tried Tele's and Mullards,they sound too "thin" on the extremes for my tastes,but the midrange was nice and smooth.
My old pair of GE's(??) sound okay too.
I really like the Sovtek LPS tubes,great tube for the price,IMO.
And no worries about hum,even with AC heaters.
I should mention,the LPS is the only current production 'AX7 I've tried so far. Might get some JJ's to play with,everyone seem to like thier tubes.
Had decent luck with the ElectroHarmonix EL34's too..
But not with the Sovtek 5AR4 rectifiers...They don't seem to fair well in a Dynaco ST-70.
One of these day's I'll find a Mullard for it....those'll survive.
Amperex/bugle boy,Matsushita,and Sovtek 12AX7LPS
I tried Tele's and Mullards,they sound too "thin" on the extremes for my tastes,but the midrange was nice and smooth.
My old pair of GE's(??) sound okay too.
I really like the Sovtek LPS tubes,great tube for the price,IMO.
And no worries about hum,even with AC heaters.
I should mention,the LPS is the only current production 'AX7 I've tried so far. Might get some JJ's to play with,everyone seem to like thier tubes.
Had decent luck with the ElectroHarmonix EL34's too..
But not with the Sovtek 5AR4 rectifiers...They don't seem to fair well in a Dynaco ST-70.
One of these day's I'll find a Mullard for it....those'll survive.
I like the Sovteks too, as well as their robust EL84M Russian cousins, but my recollection is the JJs measure cleaner up high. I can't recommend the Electroharmonic EL84 though, some new samples had 3-5 times the distortion of a JJ on the bench. Production run or bias condition perhaps but they've consistently been the worst EL84 in my amp.
Hey DigitalJunkie, glad to see it wasn't just me with the Sovtek 5AR4s. Two or three have failed in an EL84se drawing under 80 ma @ 340 VDC (18uf into 10 H!) Very not recommended.
Hey DigitalJunkie, glad to see it wasn't just me with the Sovtek 5AR4s. Two or three have failed in an EL84se drawing under 80 ma @ 340 VDC (18uf into 10 H!) Very not recommended.
Yea,The trouble I've had in the ST-70 seems to be arcing right on the bottom mica,it appears the edge of the plates are too close to the cathode,and after a while,it just arcs and it's all downhill from there.
Went through a couple of them in like 6-8 months.
My supplier kept offering to send me replacments for free,but after the last one,I declined..didn't want to soak him too bad,besides it's obvious that the Sovtek won't work there..Time to find another tube that will hold up.
Sounds like they don't hold up well at lower voltage/current either,huh?
Wavebourn said:
1N4007 x 2
Which one is that Wavebourn? I'm fairly new to tubes and get confused with all the different #'s for the same value tube's etc.
I was thinking for my rectifier tube I'd like to find a well thought of coke bottle shape 5y3 that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for that neat retro look etc. Dave
Hi tublovers ! I've been playing with noval toobz for a long time ans now only use them as repair for working stuff . I build OTLs and SE and PP DHT and many others with NOS NATO mil spec toobz ONLY : 6080wa, 807, 100TH, R120, 6B4, 6SL7, 12SN7 6J7 etc .. that i purchased many many years ago at dirt cheap prices (long before internet) . I dunno JJ , TESLA , SOVTEK but don't think these were ever made as good and reliable as 6080WB from BENDIX (RedBank serie)
DaveCan said:
Which one is that Wavebourn? I'm fairly new to tubes and get confused with all the different #'s for the same value tube's etc.
I was thinking for my rectifier tube I'd like to find a well thought of coke bottle shape 5y3 that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for that neat retro look etc. Dave
You may solder diodes underneath and use tubes for that neat retro look and feel. Really, I used my last 5Y3 circa 1975 when I connected it with a capacitor in series with filament and a relay in plate, it made great time relay for a cristmas tree.
The capacitor was an audiofile grade, oil filled one, to limit a filament current. One electrolytic cap was soldered across the relay to remove 50 Hz vibrations.
I have two favorite tubes.
The first is the 6360 which I used to build 6m and 2m transmitters -- this project took about a year but inspired by a friend whose father worked for TRW I did the kind of wiring job which would have made the wiring harnes inside an F-4 look quaint.
The second was the 2E26 which was a small version of the 6146 -- I used this on a 6m amplifier -- I happened to get a couple of them dirt cheap at a ham-fest and it was all that I could power with the above-referenced transmitter.
At one time I had in my possesion a 4CX250B -- I traded this away at a hamfest -- could never afford the socket in my youth.
The first is the 6360 which I used to build 6m and 2m transmitters -- this project took about a year but inspired by a friend whose father worked for TRW I did the kind of wiring job which would have made the wiring harnes inside an F-4 look quaint.
The second was the 2E26 which was a small version of the 6146 -- I used this on a 6m amplifier -- I happened to get a couple of them dirt cheap at a ham-fest and it was all that I could power with the above-referenced transmitter.
At one time I had in my possesion a 4CX250B -- I traded this away at a hamfest -- could never afford the socket in my youth.
coresta said:Hi tublovers ! I've been playing with noval toobz for a long time ans now only use them as repair for working stuff . I build OTLs and SE and PP DHT and many others with NOS NATO mil spec toobz ONLY : 6080wa, 807, 100TH, R120, 6B4, 6SL7, 12SN7 6J7 etc .. that i purchased many many years ago at dirt cheap prices (long before internet) . I dunno JJ , TESLA , SOVTEK but don't think these were ever made as good and reliable as 6080WB from BENDIX (RedBank serie)
Hmm... I don't understand...you built with the older octal tubes (and others, like the 807) but now you are dealing with noval ones?
Erik
Amperex was a pre-war American transmitting tube manufacturer with there own line of special designs as well as a maker of common types (845, 203, etc.) I don't know how Philips got ahold of the name or when they began manufacturing "Bugle Boy" tubes. So they indeed did make tubes themselves, but not the ones familiar to the Dynacrud camp.
But, of course. A Bendix Red Bank 6080WB cost ~8-10 times what a Mullard EL-34 did.
John
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