i notice that the rca, kenrad, and sylvania 6sn7 tubes are pretty popular, but i found the GE 6sn7 to be most pleasant. The GE seems to clear up and separate the instruments a bit, which works nice with the already 'laid back' 650s. The most pleasing thing, however, was how quiet and 'black' it is on my softer recordings. There is no hiss/distortion/hum with the GE that i've heard with some of the others i've tried.
The only power tube i've tried other than the stock 6n3(i think?) is the rca JAN 6080. i think i prefer the stock as i thought i found the rca to be just the slight bit fatugueing after long listens, but the difference was so slight that maybe there was no difference afterall. In any case i think the stock power tubes looks cool, so i just use that.
i don't even know where i'm going with this, but i'll end with a few questions:
can you guys recommend any power tubes? did you guys find that the differences between power tubes are so slight that's it's not really worth the time and money to tuberoll them or did any of you find one that's particularly above the rest?
before i found a pretty good deal from a head-fier i was interested in a 5692, but i thought i'd work my way up and see if i could even hear a difference (which i've discovered i can) in cheaper tubes before i bought an expensive one. have any of you tried the 5692 red/brown base tubes or any of the like? impressions?
thanks for reading and responding. tube amps are fun.