[Shaffer]

It can depend on the drive tubes used. Every power tube I tried in my WA22 sounded exactly the same using RCA 6SN7's. It wasn't until I went to 6F8G and rolled in the Tung-Sol roundplates and the NU that I could hear differences in power tubes. Using RCA 6SN7 drivers you could use any power tube.

FWIW, I found RCA 6SN7GTB (mid-50s vintage) to sound fairly veiled and muted with the Feliks Elise. Almost like trying to listen through a thin blanket.

I had a bit of spare time this afternoon so I had a quick listen to the RCA 6080. So far so good. As far as I can tell it is a very nice tube. A lot different sounding to the RCA 6AS7G (Dull). Quick reaction is that it is not much different to the Mullard. A little bit fuller sounding. I haven't listened to a wide variety of music so I need to evaluate a bit more. I will leave them in over the weekend

My experience mirrors yours. I think the RCA 6080 is a very nice sounding tube. I actually stock several pairs just to make sure I have them for years to come. Not quite up to your 14 pair standard ...yet.

 

[Badas]

FWIW, I found RCA 6SN7GTB (mid-50s vintage) to sound fairly veiled and muted with the Feliks Elise. Almost like trying to listen through a thin blanket.
My experience mirrors yours. I think the RCA 6080 is a very nice sounding tube. I actually stock several pairs just to make sure I have them for years to come. Not quite up to your 14 pair standard ...yet.

RCA 6SN7 is defintly veiled. It has a obvious treble roll. Nice mid-range tho. Handy for taming a bright arrangement. I used them for a while until a mate said my DAC was letting me down. I changed the DAC and never looked back. I wouldn't use a veiled tube now. Tubes like the Tung-SoL round plate are on another level.

RCA 6080 is a real nice budget tube. A little fuller compared to Mullard to the expense of a tiny amount of Dynamic range. Instrument separation is a tad bit better on the RCA. However treble is sweeter on the Mullard. Too early to evaluate fully tho. Fairly sure these tubes are truely NOS so the signature could change a lot with burn.

 

[hodgjy]

The RCA 6080 is what came stock with my WA3.  Of course, as soon as I got the amp, I went on a tube rolling roll on a quest to squeeze every bit of euphoria I could out of that amp.  Eventually, I rolled the RCA 6080 back in, and was surprised how good it sounded.  It is just slightly sloppier in the bass than the TS 5998, but still a good tube.  I guess there's a reason why Woo packs it as the stock man times.
 
Quote:

FWIW, I found RCA 6SN7GTB (mid-50s vintage) to sound fairly veiled and muted with the Feliks Elise. Almost like trying to listen through a thin blanket.
My experience mirrors yours. I think the RCA 6080 is a very nice sounding tube. I actually stock several pairs just to make sure I have them for years to come. Not quite up to your 14 pair standard ...yet.

 
 

RCA 6SN7 is defintly veiled. It has a obvious treble roll. Nice mid-range tho. Handy for taming a bright arrangement. I used them for a while until a mate said my DAC was letting me down. I changed the DAC and never looked back. I wouldn't use a veiled tube now. Tubes like the Tung-SoL round plate are on another level.

RCA 6080 is a real nice budget tube. A little fuller compared to Mullard to the expense of a tiny amount of Dynamic range. Instrument separation is a tad bit better on the RCA. However treble is sweeter on the Mullard. Too early to evaluate fully tho. Fairly sure these tubes are truely NOS so the signature could change a lot with burn.

 

[Mechans1]

I think the RCA is a very good 6080.  Short of going to a 5998 or to Europe for a 6080 e.g. Mullard I think they are superb.  I haven't invested in the Sylvania 6080 yet so the rankings may change in my book.

 

[Badas]

I did a lot of evaluating over the weekend.
 
This is what I found:
 
The Sylvania 6080. A very silky holographic tube. A lot to like. Someone mentioned it can get bright and lean. I have to agree. It has so much detail, very lush and that can get very addictive. However it is not a well balanced tube. Bass is there. It just seems that holographic lushness is at the expense of the mid-range. Great if you have darker drive tubes.
 
Mullard 6080. This is a toss up between RCA 6080 for me. A do nothing wrong and everything good tube. Good Bass, Nice mid-range and I'm ecstatic about its treble (very sweet). Good soundstage with good instrument separation. Leaner than the RCA. A very polite tube. I'm just wondering if I want polite. At the moment I think yes.
 
RCA 6080. Damn romantic tube. Deep bass (can get a little muddied with mid-range), Mid-range is that standard RCA sound. Definitely bumped. A very slight treble roll (I really mean very slight). It is a great sound however it just sounds slightly veiled compared to the Mullard.
 
I'm having a real wrestle between the Mullard and the RCA. I have noted the following tho. I did this test and made the following notes on the RCA v's Mullard.
 
Bright Music. RCA wins hands down. RCA is warmer and a lot more romantic. Mullard renders well. Treble is right at my tolerance level.
 
Dynamic Music. RCA wins but not by much. Once again warmer however I feel I'm losing some high frequency detail compared to the Mullard. If the music is slow and dynamic like Alison Krauss then the Mullard wins. It just renders that treble so sweetly.
 
Dark Music. Mullard wins. The RCA falls apart here. Bass is not as clean. It gets muddied into the mids. Result is the RCA sounds veiled. Mullard is a very well balanced tube and excels on this type of music.
 
So the result in my mind goes like this:
 
Bright Music. RCA wins, Mullard tolerable.
 
Dynamic Music. RCA wins but not by much. I wouldn't really care what tube was in.
 
Dark Music. Mullard wins by a lot. RCA is not acceptable.
 
So based on that the Mullard works on more types of music. So at this stage I will stock up on more Mullards. I do like owning and enjoy the RCA tho. I will be seeking a second opinion on this a mate who has the Woo WA5 is coming over especially to give his opinion between the two power tubes.

 

[abvolt]

Very nice impressions on the 6080's helpful for me thanks..

 

[Shaffer]

Do you guys actually swap tubes to compensate for a variance in production values on various recordings?

 

[Badas]

Do you guys actually swap tubes to compensate for a variance in production values on various recordings?

No. I try not to.
 
I'm aiming to get one set of tubes for all music.
 
My end setup will likely be Brimar Rectifier, Tung-Sol round plate Drivers and Mullard Power tubes.
 
So far I have 14 Brimar Rectifiers and 14 sets of Tung-Sol Drivers. I have one set of Mullard power tubes and two more sets on the way. If they are not noisy and have no issues I will likely get 11 more sets and be done with tube rolling.

 

[Shaffer]

No. I try not to.

I'm aiming to get one set of tubes for all music.

My end setup will likely be Brimar Rectifier, Tung-Sol round plate Drivers and Mullard Power tubes.

So far I have 14 Brimar Rectifiers and 14 sets of Tung-Sol Drivers. I have one set of Mullard power tubes and two more sets on the way. If they are not noisy and have no issues I will likely get 11 more sets and be done with tube rolling.

Fair enough.

For my Elise, I'd like to get a few more pairs of RCA 6080 and the Russian 6N13S. If I come across more Chathams, I'll get a few pairs, as well. That's about the extent of my current wish list, other than another brand of 6080 I'd like to try. I have a pair of very interesting, at least to me, 6AS7G on the way. Keeping my fingers crossed.

As for drivers, I'll be using C3g instead of the usual 6SN7. They should be here this week. I'm very excited to hear them and I'd really like them to be my drivers of choice. Then, no more 6SN7s and I could dump more cash into, perhaps, a higher grade pair of power tubes. I'd like to know what I'm missing.

 

[Badas]

Fair enough.

For my Elise, I'd like to get a few more pairs of RCA 6080 and the Russian 6N13S. If I come across more Chathams, I'll get a few pairs, as well. That's about the extent of my current wish list, other than another brand of 6080 I'd like to try. I have a pair of very interesting, at least to me, 6AS7G on the way. Keeping my fingers crossed.

As for drivers, I'll be using C3g instead of the usual 6SN7. They should be here this week. I'm very excited to hear them and I'd really like them to be my drivers of choice. Then, no more 6SN7s and I could dump more cash into, perhaps, a higher grade pair of power tubes. I'd like to know what I'm missing.

 
What amp are you using? Glenn pushes the C3g. Suppose to be a superb tube. Nearly had a listen to them at a mates house. However Jack from Woo Audio said stop immediately. You have to respect the maker. So my mate is getting a custom Glenn amp made with C3g as the drivers.
 
Like this, however with a XLR output added.
 

 
Edit: Okay sorry. I just looked up Elise amp. Very nice. For some reason Jack from Woo Audio told us not to use the C3g plus the adapter in the 6SN7 circuit. I don't know why?

 

[gibosi]

My Glenn OTL can roll either a single 6SN7 or two C3gs... and the GEC 6080s are pretty nice too.
 

 

[gibosi]

  Edit: Okay sorry. I just looked up Elise amp. Very nice. For some reason Jack from Woo Audio told us not to use the C3g plus the adapter in the 6SN7 circuit. I don't know why?

 
This is pretty typical of most manufacturers and it comes down to warranty service and customer support. If the customer tries to use a tube that is not on the company's recommended list and something bad happens, the customer likely will turn to the company for help. And to put it very simply, Woo does not want to have to provide support for every and any odd-ball tube a customer tries to use.
 
And the C3g is about as odd as you can get. The C3g is a single pentode. And therefore, it is necessary for the adapter to convert it to a single triode. Next, the adapter must somehow enable a single triode to fit into a socket designed for a double triode, with two of everything. Further, the correct bias for a C3g is very different than that of a 6SN7, especially the value of the cathode resister. So the adapter needs to compensate for this variance as well. All this can be done if one is clever enough. But Woo doesn't know anything about the adapter you might be using, how well it is designed or how well it is built. So of course, their position is do not use it....
 
But this does not mean it will not work. If it is designed properly and carefully built, it will work very well. And if you do decide to try the C3gs in your Woo, I would suggest that it might be best if you don't tell them.

 

[Shaffer]

Edit: Okay sorry. I just looked up Elise amp. Very nice. For some reason Jack from Woo Audio told us not to use the C3g plus the adapter in the 6SN7 circuit. I don't know why?

To add to gibosi's post, my C3gs are coming with a specially built pair of adapters. Credit must be given to Glenn, without whose invaluable advice it would not have been possible.

As I'd like to add a transformer-coupled amp to the stable, because the other four amplifiers are not enough, I may be contacting Glenn once I get all of my ducks in a row. The amp you posted looks terrific, BTW. I'm kinda thinking of a 2A3-based SET.

 

[Badas]

^

Thanks for the info guys. Very interesting. I knew some of that stuff but not all.

Glenn made the adapter for my friends WA5. I have the WA22 and was told the C3g was not possible at all.

I'm okay with that tho. I am happy with the Tung-Sol round plate drivers. A very stunning tube.

I will monitor how my friends Glenn amp proceeds. I think I will be tempted to do the same next year.

 

[gibosi]

Glenn made the adapter for my friends WA5. I have the WA22 and was told the C3g was not possible at all.
 

 
I doubt this is true....  Who told you it was not possible to use the C3g in a WA22?