[paara]

I recently ordered a DarkVoice 336se and also bought a couple of 6SN7 tubes.
After searching the forum for other tube amps it seems that there is a big variety of tubes used by different manufactures. If I can only use my 6SN7's in the DarkVoice it does not make me tempted to buy a lot more tubes, especially since some of them are pretty expensive.

Does anyone know it there are other good head amps that use this tube?

How does the 6SN7 tube type compare sound wise against other types, is it a good quality tube?

Thanks,

--------------------------------------------------
UPDATE:

List, so far, of amps using the 6SN7:
- Bada PH-12 (needs modification?) (520$)
- Eddie Current Balancing Act
- Eddie Current Valvecode (work in progress)
- DarkVoice 336i/se (239$)
- RSA Stealth
- Singlepower MPX3 (??$)
- Singlepower Supra (??$)
- Singlepower Maestro (??$)
- SinglePower Extreme
- Woo WA5 LE (2400$)
- Woo WA5 300B (3050$)

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paara /img/forum/go_quote.gif I recently ordered a DarkVoice 336se and also bought a couple of 6SN7 tubes. After searching the forum for other tube amps it seems that there is a big variety of tubes used by different manufactures. If I can only use my 6SN7's in the DarkVoice it does not make me tempted to buy a lot more tubes, especially since some of them are pretty expensive. Does anyone know it there are other good head amps that use this tube? How does the 6SN7 tube type compare sound wise against other types, is it a good quality tube? Thanks, Stian

Most notably, the Singlepower MPX3, Supra and Maestro headamps use this tube. Many speaker amps use this tube.

The 6SN7 is a very good sounding (some say great sounding) tube but very expensive .... as you discovered. The tube was made by the millions for 40 years or more. The only trouble with the 6SN7 is if you use the tube as an output tube the 6SN7 puts out very little current. The low power output limits you to high impedance headphones that require mostly voltage swing and little current delivery. The 6SN7 is an excellent voltage gain tube.

I use all kinds of tube and the 6SN7 and 12SN7 (12 volt versiion of 6SN7) tubes like the Sylvania tall bottle, Hytron tall bottle and Ken Rad 6/12SN7 are some of my favorites. I prefer 12SN7s as they are much less expensive and sound the same. But, you need a 12 volt filament transformer to run 12SN7s.

I have a custom hybrid amp built in process that will use the 6/12SN7GTs (or 6/12FQ7s) for gain with a 5U4 tube rectified power supply and a discrete SS output buffer.

Nice huh?

 

[paara]

Thank you for the reply.
Your amp look very nice

I see the Singlepower amps has gotten some good reviews sound wise, but apperently they are lacking some skills ragarding customer service.

Are there any other options?
Can the Bada PH-12 use 6sn7?

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paara /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you for the reply. Your amp look very nice I see the Singlepower amps has gotten some good reviews sound wise, but apperently they are lacking some skills ragarding customer service. Are there any other options? Can the Bada PH-12 use 6sn7?

Yes, but I would say the amp needs some modding to sound really good. Plus, the amp uses three 6SN7s .... that is a lot of $$$. Your DV336SE will sound very good. I have one and I think the sound is excellent with Senn 600s. With the Senn 600 I like the DV better than several well known and considerably more expensive tube amps.

 

[Spareribs]

The nice thing about the 6sn7 is that it is so easy to find which is great. If you have an amp that uses this tube, you can pretty much have it the rest of your life since the tube is so abundant.

But in relation to the Dark Voice, it is a little expensive but not too bad. My favorite 6sn7 are the World War II Sylvanias and the ones from the 1952 bad boy era also made by Sylvania. The Raytheon 1940's are also my fancy.

If I had a Dark Voice, I would just have only a standard 1950's Sylvania which can be probably found for about $25 and enjoy it and not tube roll. With the more expensive 6SN7 amps, I would spend the money a little more and tube roll.

 

[paara]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spareribs /img/forum/go_quote.gif The nice thing about the 6sn7 is that it is so easy to find which is great. If you have an amp that uses this tube, you can pretty much have it the rest of your life since the tube is so abundant. But in relation to the Dark Voice, it is a little expensive but not too bad. My favorite 6sn7 are the World War II Sylvanias and the ones from the 1952 bad boy era also made by Sylvania. The Raytheon 1940's are also my fancy. If I had a Dark Voice, I would just have only a standard 1950's Sylvania which can be probably found for about $25 and enjoy it and not tube roll. With the more expensive 6SN7 amps, I would spend the money a little more and tube roll.

yes, I agree, the DarkVoice is a bit inexpensive compared to the tube it is using, One tube can easy out cost the amp itself. That is why I was thinking: I later on maybe wanted a better amp that could extract more of the 6SN7's potential. If there are so few options I might have to sell my (for now) small 6sn7 collection and buy a completely new tube type.

The only Sylvania I own is a 6SN7WGTA brown base from 1966, I'll look into the 1950's Sylvania tip, thank you.

I see that the Woo WA 5 LE, and the WA5 300B use the 6SN7 tubes

So then the list include:
- Bada PH-12 (needs modification?)
- DarkVoice 336i/se
- Singlepower MPX3
- Singlepower Supra
- Singlepower Maestro
- Woo WA5 LE
- Woo WA5 300B

Any more?

 

[tagosaku]

Didn't RSA Stealth use 6SN7 as headphone output?

 

[Spareribs]

You could get a speaker amp that uses the 6sn7 (I think most 6sn7 users in the audiophile world use them with speakers). And get another headphone amp that does not use the 6sn7 but still keep the Dark Voice as a bedroom or office amp and still enjoy a collection of 6sn7 tubes.

 

[Skylab]

The SinglePower Extreme also uses the 6SN7 as the gain/input tube, FWIW, and uses the 6AS7G for outputs, so it uses the same tubes as the DV336, although it uses a pair of 6AS7's rather than just one. Still it should make the list.

BTW, 6SN7's don't have to cost a fortune at all. You can get good sounding RCA's, Sylvania's, and GE's for less than $20 per tube easily from a number of reputable sellers. No, they won't be the "sexy" highly popular and expensive ones like VT-231's or whatever, but they will still sound very good.

Oh and Earl - WOW - nice looking amp you are building!!!!!!

 

[paara]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spareribs /img/forum/go_quote.gif You could get a speaker amp that uses the 6sn7 (I think most 6sn7 users in the audiophile world use them with speakers). And get another headphone amp that does not use the 6sn7 but still keep the Dark Voice as a bedroom or office amp and still enjoy a collection of 6sn7 tubes.

Thanks for the replies

Yes I probably gonna keep everything.
It seems that if I want another amp I need to get something really expensive (if I want to use my tubes) or just buy one that use different tubes, and buy some of them to

 

[fkclo]

Looks like the upcoming Balancing Act from Eddie Current and the work in progress Valvecode both use 6SN7.

F. Lo

 

[paara]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fkclo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Looks like the upcoming Balancing Act from Eddie Current and the work in progress Valvecode both use 6SN7. F. Lo

Thanks,

I updated the list, just in case someone else is interested

 

[Large4mat]

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