[bochawa]

I am curious how well you like the 7A4's, the adapter can take a while to arrive if ordered out of China so it could be a couple weeks.

I'm curious, too - with all the previous comments about separation and soundstage improvement. I'm expecting the adapter to show up in mid-July - tracking shows it's still in China.

 

[Robert Padgett]

No clue, but it is always good to keep us tube-heads on notice. I suspect that the first tube is a single triode.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

I think that is a wonderful idea! Use the Lyr 3 as a slow blowing fuse, be sure and get a video. You may not get your 15 minutes of fame by doing this but several seconds could be allotted to you I would think.

I have a lot of choices for the Vali but I went back to the VT-192's for a while, an exceptional tube match for the amp IMHO.

I am going through my variants of 6SN7 and 6C8. Brimar/Mullard 6SN7 comes close, yet not the same as VT-192. I have just listened to Vivaldi's Filiae Maestae Jerusalem with Philippe Jaroussky. No other tube I know renders this piece so beautifully, try Sileant Zephyri, the spiccato of strings and that countertenor. or Natalie Stutzmann with Orfeo 55, doing Bach's Erbarme Dich. I wonder what you will think of CBS 7A4 which are finally on their way.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

Quiz of the day. Just for fun (and to preclude more 7A4 posts ) who can guess what's shown in the 1st photo and the orange thingies in the 2nd photo? Answering "tube" for the first one or "capacitor" for the second one don't count. The winner will receive one free GE 12AU7 tube. NOS. (to be fair though the difference between a NOS and DOS (Dead Old Stock) GE tube is probably not discernable audibly).

Incandescent light bulb is my guess for the first

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

This is a report of a rather happy man, who sits listening to Schubert's Forellenquintett on his Vali 2, with CBS 5692 6SN7 tube in it, drinking Le Petit Xavier - a poor man's good claret from Courthézon in Vaucluse.

My tube tester arrived yesterday, fully functional. Now I can buy all crap I find safely. So I went through all the 6SN7 and 6C8 tubes i had bought recently. Not 1 dud. Listened to dual 6J5 Sylvanias, metal bottles. Found them very nice, but just a shade lacking, compared to dual 7A4 VT-192 Sylvanias, which remained my Holy Grail for now.

Also tried Mullard ECC82 - perhaps the most likeable Noval I have.

The 5692 is easily among 5 best 6SN7 that I have, along with RCA 6SN7GT Grey Glass, Tung Sol Mouse ears (I have three slighty different tubes), and MELZ 6H8C, black holed plates. Yet so many to try now, that I know they are all good. Nice times awaiting me. And still Frankentubes and Fotons on the way...

A good weekend to all.

God gave me another present today. I was getting somewhat tired of rather good 6SN7 and 6C8 today (I will report once I have gotten trough all of them). So, I thought I'd check out my 6922 for comparison - I have not listened to them for a long time. First, I was shocked as the music is the same and it almost seems to sound the same as on the other tubes: Reflector 6N23P is somehwat dull, but EH 6922 is almost OK, is it not? Something strange.

Then I put in the VT-192 Sylvanias back in... Oh yeah. It is the same music, sure enough. But now different people are performing, with better insttruments, in the rooms of excellent acoustics, and, oh Lord, there is SPACE and COLOURS! So there IS difference among the tubes. I relaxed.

And then I remembered that in the same old Brussels storage I also picked up a Tungsram ECC88 - 6DJ8 NOS NIB. So I put it in my Vali 2. And it is still there. I am sitting with a bunch of grapes, a piece of old French camembert, and bottle of decent claret from Bordeaux (Chateau Haut-Mondain 2015), K702 on my ears, listening to a badly mastered record of David Oistrakh playing Bach, Concerto no.1 with Moscow chamber, because this tube somehow has opened even this recording, and I finally hear David's Stradivarius, 1705 Marsick, sing. All my other music sings on this tube, too. Finally, a 6DJ8 worth listening to.

I checked pictures of other Tungsram ECC88 on the Web and could not find a similar one. Even the logo is different on the tube I have - although the blue/red box is the same. It also has an UFO top getter - an almost sure sign of a Soviet made tube. But the sound, people, the sound. I will listen more to it, and the describe the sonic signature. Maybe tomorrow it will sound like crap to me.

And no, it is not better, than VT-192. Different. Yet so beautiful and engaging today.

 

[Paladin79]

You had me worried for a minute there lol. The VT-192’s are still the holy grail!

 

[bcowen]

God gave me another present today. I was getting somewhat tired of rather good 6SN7 and 6C8 today (I will report once I have gotten trough all of them). So, I thought I'd check out my 6922 for comparison - I have not listened to them for a long time. First, I was shocked as the music is the same and it almost seems to sound the same as on the other tubes: Reflector 6N23P is somehwat dull, but EH 6922 is almost OK, is it not? Something strange.

Then I put in the VT-192 Sylvanias back in... Oh yeah. It is the same music, sure enough. But now different people are performing, with better insttruments, in the rooms of excellent acoustics, and, oh Lord, there is SPACE and COLOURS! So there IS difference among the tubes. I relaxed.

And then I remembered that in the same old Brussels storage I also picked up a Tungsram ECC88 - 6DJ8 NOS NIB. So I put it in my Vali 2. And it is still there. I am sitting with a bunch of grapes, a piece of old French camembert, and bottle of decent claret from Bordeaux (Chateau Haut-Mondain 2015), K702 on my ears, listening to a badly mastered record of David Oistrakh playing Bach, Concerto no.1 with Moscow chamber, because this tube somehow has opened even this recording, and I finally hear David's Stradivarius, 1705 Marsick, sing. All my other music sings on this tube, too. Finally, a 6DJ8 worth listening to.

I checked pictures of other Tungsram ECC88 on the Web and could not find a similar one. Even the logo is different on the tube I have - although the blue/red box is the same. It also has an UFO top getter - an almost sure sign of a Soviet made tube. But the sound, people, the sound. I will listen more to it, and the describe the sonic signature. Maybe tomorrow it will sound like **** to me.

And no, it is not better, than VT-192. Different. Yet so beautiful and engaging today.

Those Tungsrams look anything like these? Really nice tubes (IMO) in the right component. Glorious in Cary gear, but not my fave in Art Audio pieces. Of course, they sound like a broken GE compared to a VT-192.

 

[bcowen]

Quiz of the day. Just for fun (and to preclude more 7A4 posts ) who can guess what's shown in the 1st photo and the orange thingies in the 2nd photo? Answering "tube" for the first one or "capacitor" for the second one don't count. The winner will receive one free GE 12AU7 tube. NOS. (to be fair though the difference between a NOS and DOS (Dead Old Stock) GE tube is probably not discernable audibly).

Appears the GE 12AU7 will have to stick around for another contest. The tube? It's an Amperite 5H-12 -- a ballast tube. I had never seen one of these before, and after reading a bit it acts as basically a voltage regulator. Pre-silicon, obviously. And the yellow thingies? Another one that made me scratch my head. Selenium rectifiers. Have never seen any in that shape or configuration, and I could not find specs for them anywhere. Could not get any reading through a diode check with my Fluke, no capacitance reading with my cap meter, but I could get a resistance reading -- in one direction only. That in itself was pretty strange, but it gave me a clue where to start looking. One read 12 megohms, the other 1.2 megohms, even though they were identically marked pieces. So one or both were crap. Both the tube and the rectifiers went in the Weston 981 that finally sprang to life today. Broken octal socket (replaced with a nice NOS Cinch), two totally dead 20 uF caps, and 2 bad resistors. But now she's singing. Right on the money calibration-wise. I still love my Hickok, but it's awful tempting to keep this as a backup. Well, actually a backup for the backup for the backup, but who's counting?

 

[triggsviola]

 

[Keno18]

Nice, but slightly disproportionate.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

Those Tungsrams look anything like these? Really nice tubes (IMO) in the right component. Glorious in Cary gear, but not my fave in Art Audio pieces. Of course, they sound like a broken GE compared to a VT-192.

That's how it looks:



Extremely high resolution and definition, fast dynamics, wide, deep and precise soundstage, balanced and rich tonality, well defined at all frequencies, Also rather analytical and revealing the detail, but not annoyingly so.

I remembered also my praise for dual RCA Radiotron 6J5. So I put them in for comparison with dual Sylvania VT-192. Need more time, different soundstages and different sound signatures, but both damn good...

So, for now, my top array is (not in particular order): dual Sylvania VT-192, dual RCA 6J5, Brimar/Mullard 6SN7, and Tungsram 6DJ8.

 

[Paladin79]

Those Tungsrams look anything like these? Really nice tubes (IMO) in the right component. Glorious in Cary gear, but not my fave in Art Audio pieces. Of course, they sound like a broken GE compared to a VT-192

It is nice to see that @bcowen realizes the greatness of a particular set of tubes, there is hope for him yet. I will soon have a similar set so I can run a pair in a DAC feeding the Vali 2, right now I make due with some Sylvaina 6j5's I have dubbed the naughty girls, they share many of the same features as Sylvania Bad Boy 6sn7's and they are my second favorite set of single triode tubes. They are not quite the holy grail, perhaps just a silver chalice, making GE tubes more like the paper cup of the 6sn7 world.

ODD you must try Sylvania 6j5's if you have not yet. Three hole black plate, bottom getter. This photo is not the best but these tubes are still out there and not very expensive.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

ODD you must try Sylvania 6j5's if you have not yet. Three hole black plate, bottom getter. This photo is not the best but these tubes are still out there and not very expensive.

I do have them, and I don't. The problem is I bought two Sylvania 6J5, metal bases, separately. Their plates and micas are different: one is 3 holes, round center plate, another one two hole, black ladder plate. I risked putting them in now, and they sound gorgeous. Not a clean solution, though...

 

[Paladin79]

I do have them, and I don't. The problem is I bought two Sylvania 6J5, metal bases, separately. Their plates and micas are different: one is 3 holes, round center plate, another one two hole, black ladder plate. I risked putting them in now, and they sound gorgeous. Not a clean solution, though...

I tried a lot of Sylvania pairs before I got to my favorites, all sounded good. Eventually I got to what I considered as great.

 

[Old Deaf Donkey]

I tried a lot of Sylvania pairs before I got to my favorites, all sounded good. Eventually I got to what I considered as great.

Tom, I do not have a pair. I have one of each tube: both Sylvania metal base, but totally different types of mica and plate in each of the tubes.