N
nitro
New member
Chinese 12ax7 vs. JJ ECC83S pre-amp tubes which one would be the brightest(highend)and have the most bite.
moronmountain
New member
Chinese
steve_k
New member
what amp? some just aren't suited for Chinese food....
glpg80
Well-known member
i got tired of getting microphonic chinese tubes all the time. eventually i went to JJ's and although they dont sound as great, at least they last!
moronmountain
New member
glpg80":yv3kvbh9 said:
Sounds like you've had bad luck, because Chinese are known for being low noise for the amount of gain they make.
jmgman69
New member
psychodave":mrp63zht said:Chinese are what you want. JJ's are great to put in amps you are selling.
Beat me to it
glpg80
Well-known member
moronmountain":j2ja7rv5 said:
i had 5 brand new chinese tubes not even 2 weeks old go micro on me - i was doing some modifications at the time and was chasing my own tail trying to figure out what i had done wrong, and after borrowing some friends known-good tubes that was the problem.
ive loaded with JJ's ever since then and have yet to have a bad tube. never again will i go to chinese - they just dont last - i wore them out faster than the 12ax7WC sovteks i used for a while as well, and eventually got fed up with the tube quality and went JJ.
tried different vendors, tried different types, and after pissing away $60 in chinese tubes that was the last straw.
J
jasonP
Well-known member
psychodave":20u1mbf2 said:Chinese are what you want. JJ's are great to put in amps you are selling.
Agreed to that! JJ's have a nice dull top end with a blanket over the speaker cab sound, imo.
J
jasonP
Well-known member
glpg80":ps9x37gg said:
If they were 2 weeks old why not return them and get some new ones?
moronmountain
New member
glpg80":3msfshlh said:
Man that sux. I only use Chinese sans a Sovtek LPS in V1 of my UL and I've never lost one. Not a single one in 22 years. I've only replaced 'em when I thought, "hmm they must be old by now?" and just popped in new ones.
glpg80
Well-known member
jasonP":1ct531vy said:
why when they still shit on me quicker than any other tube ive used? never had a problem with a JJ ecc83. they dont sound as good no, IMHO they sound like trash - but im not pissing money to the wind with them and that matters.
ive got a few tubes that ill use for tuning that are well known - but in my own amplifiers i run JJ's for everything else. i couldnt take my amplifier to band practices and gig's never knowing if my tubes were going to last through the night - let alone at home. i can name two instances that the tubes have stranded me like this before.
ill take less than superior sound quality for peace of mind anyday.
R
robertkoa
Member
For a bigger , thicker sound and lower noise , you might try the JJ 803 S , especially in the first position ( V1 ) .
They have a very large plate and a spiral filament for lower noise - you may get more USEABLE gain with them , less fizz, more beef etc. hard to generalize because all circuits are so different.
It widened the sweet spot tremendously in my old Hughes@ Kettner Tubeman - can turn the gain up almost all the way with no fuzz/fizz.
Haven't tried in my ADA MP1 yet, may do the same thing.
They have a very large plate and a spiral filament for lower noise - you may get more USEABLE gain with them , less fizz, more beef etc. hard to generalize because all circuits are so different.
It widened the sweet spot tremendously in my old Hughes@ Kettner Tubeman - can turn the gain up almost all the way with no fuzz/fizz.
Haven't tried in my ADA MP1 yet, may do the same thing.
glpg80
Well-known member
robertkoa":1wwa6jep said:
wow thanks for the info. i might try these out, sounds like a winner
Marshall Law
Well-known member
I hate chinese tubes, the JJ's sound great in my amps JMO
Audioholic
New member
For me, JJ's have only really worked on overly bright amps, they helped tame them, and take the bite / edge off when I thought it was too much. I don't think they are the tube if you are wanting to add bite. work good for some amps, suck for others
Mr. Willy
Well-known member
Chinese if you want bright. JJ's aren't bad, they're just dark. I wouldn't put all JJ's in the preamp, but one or two would help tame a bright amp.
troublehead
New member
I like Chinese in modern high gain amp designs and JJ's in everything else. I think the JJ's sound great in vintage Marshalls. I've not had problems with either. The ones I have problems with are the Tung-Sols. I can't remember how many of those have crapped out on me.
Mr. Willy
Well-known member
troublehead":3badgafz said:
I've only owned one Tung-Sol and it was bad out of the box. I hate to judge the whole line based on one tube, but I shy away from them because of it. I've never had any problems with Chinese or JJ's. Actually, the only brand I hate for sure is Sovtek. They've all sounded like poo to me.
L
luxxtone
Member
Mr. Willy":j4bnplih said:
I've had the best luck with Tung-Sols at the shop! Only about a 10% rate of bad ones that we return to the vendor. Chinese sound great, but quite a few are microphonic....but I still love the tone. Just have to go through a few of them to get the least noisey ones. We end up putting Tung-Sols in V1 and good Chinese in the other slots in a lot of the repairs / retubes. We stopped using JJ's completely, we averaged about 30% that test bad and had to return....plus they sound pretty dull in my opinion.
Basically preamp tubes are a crap shoot these days. You get a good, strong tube with good gain and you're fine. But so many test weak straight outta the box, they'll sound like crap no matter what brand it is.
D
D-Rock
Well-known member
Depends on the amp. JJ's sound great in my very bright and very high gain Laney and Peavey.