My Friday afternoon rolling opinions.
Decided to re-listen to some of my lesser used 6SN7 tubes and took notes on them. All of these were tested with the Tung-Sol 7236 on my DarkVoice 336SE
Tracks listened to: Amy Winehouse - back in black, Stevie Nicks - Gold Dust Woman, The Eagles - Victim of Love, Massive Attack - Angel, BauHaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead, Live, The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again, Cream - Crossroads Live, Golden Brown - The Stranglers.
Ken-Rad JAN-CKR-6SN7GT VT-231 Soggy, indistinct bass, really quite bad; midrange ok, treble rolled off. Very disappointed
with this tube, given its reputation. Maybe I have a bad one, but it doesn't show well here.
Sylvania 6SN7W Better than the VT-231, bass far more articulate and tight, as well as deeper and more controlled. Beautiful
midrange and female vocals (Amy Winehouse back in black, Stevie Nicks Gold Dust Woman) treble nice and smooth.
RAYTHEON 6SN7GT 2 HOLE Black Plate, surprisingly good; bass is solid, seems like a tad recessed vocals and smaller sound-stage.
Treble, sibilance, cymbals are VERY nice; smooth yet crisp; maybe my favorite treble/top end of all the tubes? Particularly lovely playing The Stranglers Golden Brown; warm, smooth, gorgeous.
Wow.. Philips JAN 6SN7WGTA still the best, and by a pretty wide margin; not even close. On Massive Attack's Angel, the bass
is deep, controlled, coherent. The difference between this tube, and let's say the KEN-RAD VT-231s bass is massive. The mid-range
is smooth, controlled, tight, great with Amy Winehouse back in black, Stevie Nicks Gold Dust Woman. The treble is lovely and
crisp, yet smooth. There are details resolved by the pairing of this with the Tung-Sol 7236 that don't exist, or are barely
perceptible with the other tubes paired with the 7236.