Bummer your 12BH7 were noisy, as it's darn near impossible to get a feel for a tube's true sound if it's too noisy. Also, a brighter more detailed Sylvania black plate would be way too much for me, as the Sylvania has too much of all that for me already, so looks like I can skip trying the Russian. Thanks for sharing that, as I was always curious about that one. It's always interesting to me how we hear and prefer things differently, and I am sure the use of 3 different tubes types at once plays a big role as well.I have a Hytron and Tung Sol 12bh7, but honestly they never caught on with me. They’re both unfortunately quite noisy, so it’s hard for me to get around that. I remember they did have a more sweet, softer sound. Maybe I should give the Tung Sol another chance - I remember the TS 12au7 black glass was similarly noisy and flat sounding, but then settled into one of my favourite tubes.
I also wanted to mention my newest find, while they’re hopefully still available from East Europe (): Reflecktor 6P14P-k with flying saucer getters. They look like the same getters found in Russian 6as7g equivalents. They were so cheap! I had to check them out. They are the most open, detailed and punchy power tubes I’ve found (yet!), without any of the graininess I associate with brighter tubes like 60s RFT EL84s. To my ears they’re like a brighter, more detailed Sylvania black plate. I think they give a bit more punchiness to ZMFs, and allows LCD4 to see deeper into the music.
I’m sure these aren’t news to many people here, but they’re new to me and I like ‘em!
Happy listening with those new tubes.
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