[stang]

bah, just tried the GE 5 Star black plate, disgusting

. No wonder I love the Tung Sol, have a look at how much a decent one costs

. Will skip the grey plate GE 5 star for now, onto the JAN Philips in a few mins

 

[dongringo]

Glad to see you're having so much fun stang!

 

[stang]

Haha yes I am (was). Am now just going to put the Tung Sol back in, am relaxed now and really cannot be bothered pin pointing the difference between tubes

. 15 years old and growing wouldn't help haha. Duno why, but that GE 5 star sounded horrible to me, even though it is supposed to be a great tube, expensive too. Tung Sol it is i reckon

. Looks like I should buy Raytheon Windmill getter and a Gold brand Sylvania. The Tung sol is very confusing to me, mine seems to be made in the USA, but all of the one's i see for sale now are from Russia. Prices seem to go anywhere from $15 to $100 or so. Why such a big price difference? I'd like to buy a backup Tung Sol and all this is very confusing.

Here is the pic of the same tube as mine

 

[sbulack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stang /img/forum/go_quote.gif May as well bump this thread to keep it alive I got my Ear+ HD about a week ago and it's been great with my Ultrasone's. need to save for some more tubes and Grado RS-1 though and then I will do a review Right now I have the ALO-780 and the volume on about o'clock. Tubes: Tung Sol ... Any suggestions on which tubes I should buy in the future? Gold pin Sylvania? Raytheon? Links would be good on ebay coz I am very new to tube rolling and there are WAY too many for me to keep up with .

With the Ear+ HD and the ALO-780, I found that a Tung Sol Double-Mica, Grey Plate 5751 synergizes especially well. I pretty much always keep a pair of NOS 12B4A's in the Mapletree. I haven't noticed nearly as much of an effect on the sound as the manufacturer of the 12B4A's varies - as I have with the manufacturer/model of the 5751/12AX7 tube.

If you really like the sound from the ALO-780 and you'd like to stick witih it for awhile and find tubes which work really well with it, I think it might be worth your while and investment to check out a Tung Sol DMGP 5751. Is the Tung Sol tube that you already have one of those?

There's a fair bit of pretty good discussion of tubes for the Ear+ HD in this thread. I think that it would be worth your while to skim the 500 posts in this thread to look for the blocks of posts in which tubes for this amp have been discussed, tips traded and sounds described. One good source of tubes is the FS forum here on Head-Fi. As folks sell off a favorite tube amp that they've "tubed up" with, after a time, they may also sell off their (sometimes really nice) tube collections if they can't use them in the new amps they've upgraded to.

 

[dongringo]

It all sounds very confusing indeed hehe. The Ear+ will be my first tube amp so I'm definitely no help.

 

[stang]

I have one Tung Sol 5751 in the Ear+ HD right now. Mids are more upfront with more bass impact and less quantity of treble and bass overall. A great combo for the already bass heavy and (IMO) treble heavy ALO-780

Dunno what Tung Sol I have right now, all I know is that it's the same as in that picture. Made in USA, "JAN-JT-5751". I think I need a new pair of power tubes, as the left one in my amplifier, at the top is very grey (I think that's from the filament burning over time).

 

[stang]

BTW sbulack, can you recommend me a good (as new as possible) pair of power tubes? Thanks. Dunno a budget, have $150 now but am trying to save for a pair of Grado RS-1, not looking good

.
EDIT: Found a pair of the exact Tung Sol I love, hope they don't end up being too pricey!

 

[sbulack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stang /img/forum/go_quote.gif BTW sbulack, can you recommend me a good (as new as possible) pair of power tubes? Thanks. Dunno a budget, have $150 now but am trying to save for a pair of Grado RS-1, not looking good . EDIT: Found a pair of the exact Tung Sol I love, hope they don't end up being too pricey!

For my 12B4A tubes, I get them from the "NOS Grab Bag" at tubedepot.com:
12B4A
For awhile, I went to Tube World and ordered pairs of different manufacture and vintage (all NOS) 12B4A's, and really I did not notice much of a difference between them. mrarroyo, earlier in this thread, has given a hearty recommendation to a particular manufacturer/model of 12B4A tube that he HAS noticed a real improvement when using. I don't happen to remember what that particular tube was, but that post was made somewhere in the Spring-Summer of 2009 time-frame. At tubedepot, the NOS 12B4A's are $6/ea + modest shipping. At Tube World, for various manufacturers and models, the price of a 12B4A tube varies from $10 - $20 per tube, basically.

Having a Mapletree Ear+ HD, it makes sense to want to purchase a Grado RS-1. There are LOTS of posts describing how well they work together. My best wishes to you saving up for those phones and buying a pair.

 

[stang]

Could it be on http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/mad...5/index19.html

He mentioned the GE red label 12B4A

 

[sbulack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stang /img/forum/go_quote.gif Could it be on http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/mad...5/index19.html He mentioned the GE red label 12B4A

Yes, you found his post that I was referring to in my previous post above. And, now that I've read it again, I recognize it. Yes, it was the GE red label 12B4A that he recommended because "they sound so good". I haven't yet tried that particular 12B4A. Being reminded of Miguel's recommendation of it, though, causes me to put it on my list of tubes-to-try (scheduled for sometime in the next few months when I'll likely have more of an audio budget to use to try things than I do right now).

 

[musicmind]

Current production re-issues of Tungsol (and Mullard) 12ax7 are made in Russia, hence the difference in prices you noted compared to the made in USA NOS versions.
There isnt a Tungsol 5751 re-issue AFAIK, only a 12ax7.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stang /img/forum/go_quote.gif Haha yes I am (was). Am now just going to put the Tung Sol back in, am relaxed now and really cannot be bothered pin pointing the difference between tubes . 15 years old and growing wouldn't help haha. Duno why, but that GE 5 star sounded horrible to me, even though it is supposed to be a great tube, expensive too. Tung Sol it is i reckon . Looks like I should buy Raytheon Windmill getter and a Gold brand Sylvania. The Tung sol is very confusing to me, mine seems to be made in the USA, but all of the one's i see for sale now are from Russia. Prices seem to go anywhere from $15 to $100 or so. Why such a big price difference? I'd like to buy a backup Tung Sol and all this is very confusing. Here is the pic of the same tube as mine

 

[stang]

Hmm should I buy a back up USA version 5751 then? Isn't it lower gain than 12AX7? So better for the cans I use, Ultrasone's and soon RS-1? O heard 5751 also has lower noise floor and micro phonics.

 

[sbulack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stang /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm should I buy a back up USA version 5751 then? Isn't it lower gain than 12AX7? So better for the cans I use, Ultrasone's and soon RS-1? O heard 5751 also has lower noise floor and micro phonics.

The gain in a 5751 tube is less than that of the 12AX7 tube, but, when I asked Dr. Peppard about this, he replied that the gain of the Mapletree Ear+ HD amp circuit is determined by the circuit design rather than by the gain characteristics of the tube used. Still, I DO notice some difference in the level of output with the Mapletree when I use a 5751 vs a 12AX7, but probably not as great a difference as between the tubes themselves, the tube gain difference being compensated in Dr. Peppard's amp circuit design.

On Brendan Biever's Tube World website, enough information is given about each tube for sale that you can target what you are looking for. If it turns out to be a hard tube to find, Paul_lindemann (a seller on Audiogon) has helped me to find some otherwise hard-to-find tubes. They were not inexpensive, by any means, but I actually paid less for them than for less rare tubes on eBay auctions or for comparable available tubes on Tube World. Paul has received repeat recommendations in the "Tube Sources" sticky at the top of one of the Head-Fi forums. I actually purchased my Tung Sol 5751's from Paul for a nice amount less than Tube World happened to be selling them for at the same time. I value both of these tube sources (and am a repeat customer of both) for the reasons stated above. And then there's tubedepot.com for their great price on NOS 12B4A tubes, if specific make/model (other than being NOS) is not a purchase goal.

There are a few ideas for how to proceed to purchase a backup Tung Sol USA 5751.

 

[stang]

Ah thanks. I gotta buy a back up and two red label GE 12B4A asap. After that, every tube will be a luxury. So difficult saving for the RS-1s that I need

 

[Zai]

Mnnh i thought the power tubes didn't affect SQ at all.