[Johnybuchar]

My current driver tube ladder:
1) Sylvania 5654W (black plates with green label)
2) Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV
3) Tesla 6F32
4) Mullard 8100
5) JAN 5654W
6) RCA 5654
7) GE 5 stars
8) Raytheon 5654

Position in ladder depends on base my daily state of mind )) however Sylvania the best all rounder! I am looking for sisters 12AX7 for Yaqin MC100MB.

 

[Tony51]

For power tubes, I settled on the sovtek 6h30p-i they put out the most power. A bit pricey at about 50-75 bucks but very good Russian made tubes.

 

[nutsfortubes]

sovtek 6h30p-i Is this a direct replacement for 6n6p tubes?

 

[Tony51]

Yes sir, I have them on my Little Dot Mk2 as we speak for 2 years now.

 

[OctavianH]

Yes sir, I have them on my Little Dot Mk2 as we speak for 2 years now.

From the user guide:

11Little Dot MK II Power Tube RollingThe Little Dot MK II uses 6n6 power tubes by default, and these can be replaced with 6H6PI, 6H6n, 6H6n-N, 6N6P, and 6N6P-Ipower tubes.If your circuit version is 2.0 or above, you can also use the 6H30 type power tubes (6H30EB, 6H30PI, 6H30P-DR, etc).

so check your PCB version.

 

[Onik]

From the user guide:

11Little Dot MK II Power Tube RollingThe Little Dot MK II uses 6n6 power tubes by default, and these can be replaced with 6H6PI, 6H6n, 6H6n-N, 6N6P, and 6N6P-Ipower tubes.If your circuit version is 2.0 or above, you can also use the 6H30 type power tubes (6H30EB, 6H30PI, 6H30P-DR, etc).

so check your PCB version.

Is there any made in Germany Power Tubes for LD MKII? ( just not a fan of Russian made LOL)

 

[OctavianH]

I never used non-Russian powers but they are some of the best in the world, so you should not worry.

 

[Onik]

I never used non-Russian powers but they are some of the best in the world, so you should not worry.

and I never used any Russian Audio Brands in my life and I don't really like "made in Russia" doesn't sound good to me I just don't know why. maybe because Im a fan of "made in USA,GERMANY, and JAPAN "

 

[gibosi]

The Little Dot was designed around these output tubes. And in fact, "made in Russia" does not imply poor quality. For example, some consider the 6H30P-DR to be among the very best double triodes available.

If you are determined to use only western tubes then you need to accept the fact that there are no suitable substitutes that are plug-and-play. All of them require an adapter of some sort. In my opinion, the 5687 is the most similar to the 6N6, 6H6 and 6H30.

 

[mordy]

My current driver tube ladder:
1) Sylvania 5654W (black plates with green label)
2) Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV
3) Tesla 6F32
4) Mullard 8100
5) JAN 5654W
6) RCA 5654
7) GE 5 stars
8) Raytheon 5654

Position in ladder depends on base my daily state of mind )) however Sylvania the best all rounder! I am looking for sisters 12AX7 for Yaqin MC100MB.

Hi Johnnybuchar,
The tube you list as #5 on your list is lacking the brand name. JAN is an abbreviation for "Joint Army and Navy" and indicates that the tube was made for military use. If the there is no name, look for a three letter designation such as CRC (RCA) or similar which will indicate the manufacturer. Also you can look for a three digit combination like 312 (Sylvania) that will also indicate the manufacturer.

 

[Johnybuchar]

Hi Johnnybuchar,
The tube you list as #5 on your list is lacking the brand name. JAN is an abbreviation for "Joint Army and Navy" and indicates that the tube was made for military use. If the there is no name, look for a three letter designation such as CRC (RCA) or similar which will indicate the manufacturer. Also you can look for a three digit combination like 312 (Sylvania) that will also indicate the manufacturer.

Yes, you are right. My mistake, #5 GE JAN 5654W. I know the abbreviation. I like military tubes .

 

[Ad720]

Has anyone sprung for the telefunkens? Worth it?

 

[Andrew LB]

I'm currently in the process of getting my Little Dot MK III back in working order after being shelved about 4 years ago after i had a bit of lightning action inside a tube that had way too many hours on it. Some resistors were replaced back then and since i didn't recall if i had used it after the repair, i decided to take out the PCB to see if everything looked good. Unfortunately two of the three Nippon Chemicon KMH 330uf 250v caps were bulging a bit and looking over the board it was clear that this thing had some pretty shoddy soldering work done when it was made with quite a few cold joints. So i ordered 3x EPCOS (TDK) 330uf 250v 10k hrs caps and while i was in there, figured i'd also replace the 2x 220uf 200v Nippon Chemicon caps with some higher quality Nichicon UCY caps, and replaced the two film caps up front with Panasonic ECQ's of similar rating. The 4x Nichicon 16v 220uf caps are being replaced by new Panasonic FR series caps of the same value. Only thing left to replace are the yellow Carli and red WIMA film caps with some better quality polyprop film caps. I've also been re-soldering the tube sockets, extended the transformer wires, improving the PCB ground connection, and making sure all the factory soldering is solid. Probably gonna get an Alps K27 100k pot for it as well.

New tubes are also on the agenda. I'm gonna start by picking up some 6n6p NOS and JAN 5654w on the cheap and once i make sure the amp is working properly, ill then consider looking into some of those tube adapters.A lot has changed since i last browsed this thread. Its good to see people still trying to improve these amps.

 

[stuntmanx8]

I am about 3 months in on my LD2. The tubes I have tried were the factory Chinese finals 6n6 with the factory Chinese drivers. The set up was moderate at best listening on my Sennheiser pxc550's.
It was better than many of my solid state rigs. Then I changed the drivers to the highly recomended GE JAN 5654w matched from riverside Audio. This really opened up the frequency response ranges.
The low end got just a tad punchier and the mids really opened up right out of the box. After about 50-60hrs on this set up, I could really hear the driver GE's set in nicely. I enjoyed this set up listening to lots of classical, jazz, electro-swing and other various EDM variants of music. 60s and 70s erra rock sounds pretty good with this combo is great.

I found what looked like a deal on some NOS russian Final 6n6p/6h6n at 10 bucks from a trade show here locally in Portland OR. These were sold as never used and tested good (not matched) however.
These had no distinguishing manufacture markings and had no box. They have only 6H6n with 11-69 under them on the glass. The filament on one of these finals is slightly dimmer than the other one, so I doubt they are a matched pair.
I feel they might be a little on the weak side, because when I crank the volume nob up passed 50 on my LD2, the sound starts to really distort. My Chinese finals wouldn't do this until the volume knob got to around 75.
The audio on these Russian 6h6n's finals sounds a little stronger on the low end with more punch. I will report back after these final tubes set in some more.

 

[stuntmanx8]

and I never used any Russian Audio Brands in my life and I don't really like "made in Russia" doesn't sound good to me I just don't know why. maybe because Im a fan of "made in USA,GERMANY, and JAPAN "

I encourage you do some reading on soviet era tube manufacturing processes and quality. Especially the military version of their tubes. It was not uncommon for a builder to be executed for sub-par quality in their tubes back in the 60s and 70s.
I have used lots of Soviet tubes in various projects over the years and would say they are on the same level as US made products. Stay away from the Chinese junk btw.