So I’ve been listening to a variety of tubes with my Mjo2 and while I know there are plenty of tube reviews out there, I figured I should chip in my impressions.
These won’t be incredibly detailed reviews using lots of audiophile terms, but may be helpful as a data point anyway. Feel free to ask for any more specific info and I’ll do my best to share my thoughts.
When I mention grades, its relative to what I have heard, and very subjective. When I mention upgrade, these offer noticably better sound but its not going to change the amp into a different amp.
Gear used for these impressions: Roon -> Aurilac Aries -> Gumby -> Mjo2 -> {Th900, Eikon, HD650}, balanced ins and outs
Genres: Rock, Rap, EDM, Reggae, Jazz, Pop, Blues
Stock tubes: These are just... decent. They sound good but not particularly great, I definitely think they are worth upgrading. Grade C.
LISST: I often prefer these to the stock tubes. They just sound to me slightly faster and more precise, and the stock tubes don’t do enough to overcome them, but its sort of a tossup depending on headphones and choice of music. Nice to be able to switch back and forth.
64 Sylvania Gold 6DJ8 O Getter made in Waltham, Mass.: Really enjoyable tube, clean and even. These are a decent upgrade over stock tubes. Nothing wrong but not amazing, just very good. Grade B+
iFi NOS JAN-5670 (6922): Good mids but other than that they sound sort of... lame I guess. They are a upgrade to stock but not worth the price for the nicely boxed iFi ones, just get an adapter and order the tubes seperately would be cheaper. Good but the Sylvania are better. Grade B-
Amperex 60s 6DJ8/ECC88 made in Holland: Clean, quiet, maybe a little warmth. Again these are a very good upgrade over stock but they don’t blow my mind. Grade B+
Siemens 1970 E88CC A-frame getter, gold pins made in Germany: Now this is definitely a big upgrade from the stock. Great precise bass, super clean, musical. Love em but they aren’t the absolute best I have heard and I still (rarely) prefer LISST with some cans/tracks. But that is very rare, and I could be very happy if I just left these in and forgot about anything else. Grade A-
Reflektor 1975 SWGP Silver Shields “Holy Grail”: Damn. Wasn’t expecting these to be so much better, heard they were good but... soundstage, precision, extension is just the best I’ve heard. These are better than all of the above pretty much all the time. Finally a bit of the flavor of that 3D aspect that tubes can bring. Never want to roll these out. Grade A+
Anyway, let me know if you have any questions, hope some of these opinions are useful to someone.