Ah, tube rolling.....
Have been soaking up good sound with the the EF86 tubes as drivers and the EL12N as power tubes. The only drawback (if you can call it that) is that I have to turn up the volume higher to get it loud enough.
The EF86 is being used as a triode strapped pentode in the Euforia. Come to think of it, I have a box of small signal tubes (AKA peanut tubes) that are dual triodes from the 6DJ8 family. Actually counted 20 of them. They were bought in the era of the 99c stores on eBay, and I did not pay much for any one of them.
The most expensive is an Amperex 6DJ8/ECC88 Made in Holland with a Tektronics label on it for $5. Tektronics was a high grade instrument and oscilloscope maker, and the tubes they used were specially selected and matched.
Then I have a quad of Voskhod 6N23P tubes - these have been reviewed elsewhere on the Elise thread. The rest are a hodgepodge of "exotic" designations from mostly US makers: 6BC8, 6BS8 (such a designation would not happen today lol), 6BZ7, 6BQ7,6BQ7A, 6BZ8 and a tube from the Tung Sol space program - X155 (just kidding!). In this collection you could barely find a matched pair....
Paying $1 for a tube I don't expect too much, and a couple of them hum badly or sound bad; around 4 so far of the 20 tubes. But the rest really sound good with the EL12N - an airy, musical, detailed and fleet sound.
So far these are initial impressions trying the 6DJ8/EC88, 6BQ7 and 6BC8 tubes. I am going to go through the rest of them to see if I can come up with not only differences but winners.
Have fun!
