[Paladin79]

Interesting, if ever you want to do some A/B testing I would help with the setup. I like to be able to go back and forth between tubes or tube sets so I can compare them directly and setting them up at the same volume level is pretty important as well especially for bass. A fine selection of tubes!

 

[leftside]

Interesting, if ever you want to do some A/B testing I would help with the setup. I like to be able to go back and forth between tubes or tube sets so I can compare them directly and setting them up at the same volume level is pretty important as well especially for bass. A fine selection of tubes!

I've sometimes thought about getting two of the same amps built so that I could more easily compare tubes. My preamp can drive multiple amps at the same time. I think only on here that would seem reasonable?

I use this same preamp to compare the same recordings (playing at the same time) via my DAC and turntable. It makes for some very interesting comparisons.

 

[Paladin79]

I've sometimes thought about getting two of the same amps built so that I could more easily compare tubes. My preamp can drive multiple amps at the same time. I think only on here that would seem reasonable?

I use this same preamp to compare the same recordings (playing at the same time) via my DAC and turntable. It makes for some very interesting comparisons.

My situation is not exactly the same as the casual listener and I often have two of the same headphone amps around of my own design. I also do not use hybrid amps, I want to hear tubes and only tubes. Sometimes within hybrid amps and pre-amps, a tube is added as a buffer, a way of imparting some tube sound but not enough of it to tell a lot of difference between tubes. I have used identical Bottlehead Cracks, as well as my amp, the Incubus Elegan that was designed for pure tube listening. I also built a box so that I can have RCA in and 1/4 inch female out so that when I hook to a switchbox I can use the same headphones, push one button and be listening to the same track on another amp, or three other amps, I generally do two or four myself.

It is not only here that hearing two amps seems reasonable, my audiophile group uses multiple amps and compares multiple DACS, and power amps all the time cause we want to get opinions from multiple people.

That does not mean I do not do my own comparisons at home, there are single and double triode tubes I personally test all the time. I am always curious though how my thoughts stack up against a larger group that includes some highly qualified people. Because of some of my work I have tested most every type of wire made that could feasibly be used for headphone cables and interconnects. I have also modified my own speakers and headphones to get the sound I wanted.

It is easy enough to hear one tube or tubes, score a tube, hear another, then do the same. Personally I do better when I can do a direct comparison going back and forth between specific tracks to rate the tube on 25 specifics. Even the most subjective things can be made somewhat objective.

This is the setup I sent Schiit audio so they could use four pre-amps operating from one source. The signal is split four ways so it is identical going into each pre-amp, I built all cables and two of the three boxes. The final result could be one pair of headphones or one power amp and one pair of speakers. All tubes were concealed for a blind listening. Four tubes and a switchbox to hear all four.

.



I should mention that @bcowen was gracious enough to send me parts and assisted in building some extension sockets they used. Bill had heard some of the test tubes and his ability to spot differences is remarkable.

 

[RoyGB]

For me personally I have found that I don't need to AB tubes.

If I need to AB tubes to hear a difference between them, then they are likely similar enough where it really wouldn't matter too much because I either like its character or I dont. But most of the times tubes are chocolate and vanilla icecream both are great and picking between them is done on a whim of the moment. They do different things and impart a different character on the sound so ABing them really has no purpose IMO. Being able to put into words what a tube does and how exactly it differs from a different tube is useful for reviews, but outside of reviews my lizard brain just gravitates to what makes the air wiggle in my favorite way.

I think when I was first getting into tubes the ability to AB them would have been nice, because my ears were not the best at discerning differences and I percieved many more tubes as sounding like solidstate before I began to make sense of what tube sound was and how to listen to and appreciate it. I think it would have helped me understand tubes better at the time. But at this point my ears have kinda dialed into tubes where I can just appreciate tube sound and pick out a tubes character very quickly.

Now granted, rolling these tubes into a different amp, that has potential to add strawberry into the mix.

 

[Paladin79]

For me personally I have found that I don't need to AB tubes.

If I need to AB tubes to hear a difference between them, then they are likely similar enough where it really wouldn't matter too much because I either like its character or I dont. But most of the times tubes are chocolate and vanilla icecream both are great and picking between them is done on a whim of the moment. They do different things and impart a different character on the sound so ABing them really has no purpose IMO. Being able to put into words what a tube does and how exactly it differs from a different tube is useful for reviews, but outside of reviews my lizard brain just gravitates to what makes the air wiggle in my favorite way.

I think when I was first getting into tubes the ability to AB them would have been nice, because my ears were not the best at discerning differences and I percieved many more tubes as sounding like solidstate before I began to make sense of what tube sound was and how to listen to and appreciate it. I think it would have helped me understand tubes better at the time. But at this point my ears have kinda dialed into tubes where I can just appreciate tube sound and pick out a tubes character very quickly.

Now granted, rolling these tubes into a different amp, that has potential to add strawberry into the mix.

I use both methods but I am also a member of a scientific community so in order to offer something to that group, I need to think as they do. I personally do not own the $70,000 device that Schiit used to match signal levels, but my group does. There are a lot of things even a lay person can do at home to check that level for $20 or so. For a quick down and dirty test I use VU meters. I have been working with tubes since an early age and I do listen for the pure joy of listening but I also like to compare apples to apples and if the gain is off a bit between triodes, I like to adjust for that, as well as signal level if comparing between two tubes. As I said, my situation is different and many do not own identical amps so this is out of the question for them. I also mentioned I will just listen and develop a like for one tube over another. That is easy enough for anyone. My group will be dealing with 52 6sn7 equivalents and 50 listeners so this speeds up the process and I am afraid to say, makes it more accurate. We have done studies of people hearing a group of tubes then describing their favorites, try it a second and a third time blind, and they can rarely pick the same tubes again. Do that with identical signal and the criteria we use, and more often than not they will score the tubes the same way the second and third times. That is with A/B testing as well.

 

[leftside]

If you look closely at the date codes and the getters on these Osram 6J5 you can see roughly when they switched from inverted saucer getter to D getter. I also have the tall MWT black base version with inverted saucer getter and D getter with similar date codes. In my amp, I can't tell a sonic difference between these tubes, but they are some of my favourite.

 

[leftside]

Fivre 76

 

[leftside]

 

[leftside]

Fivre 6C5G

 

[chrisdrop]

 

[leftside]

LOL <blush>. I think most people like to see pics of tubes? I know I do when other people post. When I first started purchasing tubes, it was nice to see the pictures, different types and learning how to identify various tubes and approx years of manufacturing just by looking at their construction, getter types, etc.

 

[leftside]

Those Fivre 76 tubes were a total mess when I purchased them. I should have posted before and after pics. The pins were covered in some sort of grey soot like they were kept with coal, the bases were filthy, tons of gunk inbetween the glass and the base, old test result stickers on the bases, dusty glass and whiteout/tippex markings also on the glass and bases. Took me over an hour to clean them up, but they came out ok. Shame those red labels aren't a little more complete. But, more importantly they are very quiet and sound great. And were cheap at 10 euros each.

 

[chrisdrop]

10 euros each.

Wow.

 

[CAJames]

Those tubes are dead sexy.

 

[RoyGB]

Would love to get some audio impressions of those tubes.
I have not tried any European tubes in this family yet. Most of them are too expensive for me to justify, but I have always been curious on how they stack up to American tubes.