[Wes S]

Super, great review on RCA VT-231 v.s. Ken-Rad VT-231. Thank you very much!

It seems more likely now that RCA VT-231 would be my cup of tea, as bright and harsh upper mids to lower treble pairing with HD800 would likely to hurt my ears too. Glad that I scored 2 RCA VT-231's recently.

Glad it helped! Just to elaborate on the KenRad, it is a somewhat dark sounding tube overall, and as a result I would often turn up the volume, to get better dynamics and clarity, and that is when those peaks that come through in the upper mids/lower treble, would always cause fatigue after long listening sessions. The KR is really an interesting tube, in that it can sound dark, with the big bass and rolled off upper treble, and bright at the same time with the upper mids/lower treble peak. I am sure that in some applications this tube would be killer and that is why I kept my stash.

 

[cddc]

It's indeed very interesting, dark sounding signature normally does not come with harsh lower highs. The HD650 as a good example of dark sounding headphones does not have any harshness in upper registries and is good for long listening sessions. Will see if I can have a listen to Kend-Rad and add it to my stash.

 

[Wes S]

It's indeed very interesting, dark sounding signature normally does not come with harsh lower highs. The HD650 as a good example of dark sounding headphones does not have any harshness in upper registries and is good for long listening sessions. Will see if I can have a listen to Kend-Rad and add it to my stash.

I own a pair of HD 650 and agree.

 

[Skylab]

Cool, so one more vote on Ken-Rad for more bass.

I remember @Skylab said K-R VT-231 has really strong bass but muddy. Not sure if RCA VT-231 is better overall than K-R VT-231?

I certainly preferred the RCA over the Ken-Rad, yes...but...

I would say that would be a personal preference type of thing.

Beyond a doubt.

 

[cddc]

Are these Tung Sol 6SN7GTB tubes?

Well, the print on base says Tung Sol, and the print on glass also looks like Tung Sol, however their flat ladder plates and side D-getters and micas are quite similar to GE 6SN7GTBs'.

Most Tung Sol 6SN7GTB's I have seen come with T-plates, the flat ladder plates make me think they are likely rebranded GE's (or RCA's...)?

Can any guru here confirm that Tung Sol 6SN7GTBs can have flat ladder plates, or the ones below are just rebranded non-Tung Sol 6SN7GTB tubes? @Skylab , @Xcalibur255 , @rosgr63, @whirlwind, @Oskari

 

[ken6217]

I just purchased a pair of Mullard ECC32 tubes. I have always run 6SN7's and am not that familiar with the structure of the ECC32 tubes. In looking at the pair. they do not look the same. One tube has two red wires near the baee, and the other tube doesn't.

Can someone comment on this and let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

 

[leftside]

I just purchased a pair of Mullard ECC32 tubes. I have always run 6SN7's and am not that familiar with the structure of the ECC32 tubes. In looking at the pair. they do not look the same. One tube has two red wires near the baee, and the other tube doesn't.

Can someone comment on this and let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

There are many different variations with these tubes. Getters, micas, spacers, black/brown bases, grey/black plates - and in your case black vs red wires. Any other differences? If it's just red vs black wires that are the differences, then you've got yourself a very similar pair of tubes (construction wise).

 

[cddc]

I just purchased a pair of Mullard ECC32 tubes. I have always run 6SN7's and am not that familiar with the structure of the ECC32 tubes. In looking at the pair. they do not look the same. One tube has two red wires near the baee, and the other tube doesn't.

Can someone comment on this and let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

I think what you saw were just 2 pairs of braided shield sleeves in different colors - one in red and one in black.

 

[Wes S]

I think what you saw were just 2 pairs of braided shield sleeves in different colors - one in red and one in black.

That's what it looks like to me, as well.

 

[ken6217]

Thanks for both replies. I didn't not notice the tube without the red wire had a black braided wire. So, both are the same except for the wire color.

 

[Ripper2860]

FYI -- CV181 and 6SN7 are not 100% inter-changeable. The CV-181 has a 50% higher heater current draw (.96) than 6SN7 (.6). If using these in a 6SN7-based amplifier, be sure to verify it has the ability to deliver the additional current w/o incident.

 

[ken6217]

I'm aware. It says in the manual that ECC32 tubes are ok for my amp.

 

[Robert Padgett]

"On average, the ECC32 / CV181 has a heater current that’s 350 milliamps higher than a 6SN7 tube – i.e. 600-mA versus 900-mA. The ECC32 has a slightly higher mu of 32 versus the 6SN7’s 20 and the ECC32 has a maximum plate voltage rating of 300-VDC while the 6SN7 has a higher maximum plate voltage rating of 450-VDC. On average, the plate resistance of the ECC32 at 14,000-ohms is twice that of the 6SN7’s 7,000-ohms, so it is not advisable to use high-capacitance interconnects / cables with ECC32 / CV181 vacuum tube equipped preamplifiers or it will result in a dark, murky sound. So the use of a Monster Cable M850i is out of the question." -- http://boneshifi.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-ecc32-cv181-most-musical.html

 

[LoryWiv]

FYI -- CV181 and 6SN7 are not 100% inter-changeable. The CV-181 has a 50% higher heater current draw (.96) than 6SN7 (.6). If using these in a 6SN7-based amplifier, be sure to verify it has the ability to deliver the additional current w/o incident.

Helpful to know, thanks @Ripper2860 . I think my Feliks-Audio Elise can't exceed ~ 6.5A for all tubes combined. Does the heater current draw also vary by brand and specific type of CV181? For example, it appears the PSVane CV 181Tdraws 0.6 if I am reading the specifications correctly.

 

[Ripper2860]

CV181s are all the same electrical specifications. Real CV181s are .96 heater current draw or they are either defective or not a CV181. Now where it gets confusing is with the folks at PSvane and Shu-guang -- they went and threw a monkey-wrench into the works by marketing a line of "CV181" tubes that are not CV181s . Their CV-181 series tubes are NOT CV-181s at all, but are actually 6SN7s with .6 heater current draw. Why their marketing department decided to do that is beyond me. Even Grant HiFi had to put out a disclaimer that the PSvane CV181s they sell are NOT CV181s but are actually 6SN7 tubes, due to concerns with heater current draw specs being different between the two.

Hope this helps.