New Shuguang tubes, anyone try them?

[Zado]

I ended up having to cancel my trip to the rehearsal space over the weekend but got down here today and swapped the new 12AX7B's in, they sound really close to the early 90s tubes but with a punchier low end, I dig them and I'm leaving them in the stealth.

Good, now let's wait and see how long they last

 

[Soundstorm]

Kind of a dumb question, but may I ask roughly what the difference between these two are? I've always just used JJs from Eurotubes and Nesstone tubes, but would like to try these Shuguang tubes as I've heard a lot of good things over the years.

The 12ax7B is a slightly higher gain tube than the standard Chinese 12ax7. It’s also supposed to have less noise iirc

The Ruby tubes are tested and hand selected for the highest gain and lowest noise/microphonics. That’s the main difference. They’re made for sensitive V1 positions in high gain amps.

But both are Chinese 12ax7’s. They’ll have more gain and are a little brighter in the presence region than other preamp tubes.

 

[jabps]

Kind of a dumb question, but may I ask roughly what the difference between these two are? I've always just used JJs from Eurotubes and Nesstone tubes, but would like to try these Shuguang tubes as I've heard a lot of good things over the years.

Speaking for myself only...JJ's and basically any of them I've tried just sound dull. The Shuguang Chinese pre's dont. That's pretty much it in a nutshell..."for me".

 

[Rex Rocker]

I don't think Shuguangs sound "brighter" than Tung Sol or (especially) Electro Harmonix. But they do indeed have kind of a raspy/gritty character to the high-mids and highs. They also have kind of a cool subtle low/sub-low grunt going on. That is, of course, if the new Shuguangs sound like the older Shuguangs from before the factory burned. I haven't tried those, but that's my experience from the Shuguangs from like 5 years ago.