baronbeehive
Headphoneus Supremus
I feel that the most interesting area of upgrade to go in now would be to do the same as has been done for the 6SL7 tube but for the 6SN7. This would need a switch because the optimal operating point for both tubes would not work together without it because they are so different with different load lines. I've heard both tubes on the stock amp and couldn't tell the difference but with both tubes optimised that would be entirely different and I would be interested to hear what the 6SN7 sounded like on it's optimum operating point. We haven't done this because we settled on the 6SL7 as being the best tube for the amp because of the higher gain so we didn't bother experimenting with the 6SN7. But I'm waiting for someone to do it! The anode/cathode tests are what I feel would bring about the most variance in sound.
A switch could also switch between different anode/cathodes with the same tube and could produce a different sound. For instance I have been wondering what sound the operating point low down in the distorted area of the grid would be like. I didn't do this because I was trying to find the best operating point, ie. the least distorted sound. It's possible that the sound would be very tubey therefore you could switch between transparent/tubey sounds depending on your mood, or what type of music you were listening to.
A switch would be simple to do by connecting in parallel the desired anode/cathode resistor to move the operating point to where you wanted it to be. It would be better to have 2 switches, one for anode and one for cathode, this would give 4 different combinations.. and if you had a similar switch for the 6SN7.. well that would be where it would start to get very interesting!
A switch could also switch between different anode/cathodes with the same tube and could produce a different sound. For instance I have been wondering what sound the operating point low down in the distorted area of the grid would be like. I didn't do this because I was trying to find the best operating point, ie. the least distorted sound. It's possible that the sound would be very tubey therefore you could switch between transparent/tubey sounds depending on your mood, or what type of music you were listening to.
A switch would be simple to do by connecting in parallel the desired anode/cathode resistor to move the operating point to where you wanted it to be. It would be better to have 2 switches, one for anode and one for cathode, this would give 4 different combinations.. and if you had a similar switch for the 6SN7.. well that would be where it would start to get very interesting!