Tube preference

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hollywood
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So I have a good power tube choice in the winged c's but do I want to go out and buy sovtek lps pre's when they are known for not lasting and being prone to becoming microphonic ? Add to that they are being sold at the present time as a majority failure, ie: a bad batch of produced tubes lately. I could go all chinese but I don't know what that will yield. :confused:
 
All Chinese sounds great to me. The reason I get Penta Labs is because many of the regular 9th gen tubes sound not that good.
 
Guys I got a package today from New York. New tubes brah! Nick Koykas/dawnof dreamx97 sent me a box fed-ex, like 2 day. This guy is a killer friend. I did not ask for the 2 day yet he sent it for no charge. :yes: I get this box and it has a set of power tubes, a quad of ruby el-34's for the bogner. It also has like 8 pre-tubes in it, maybe more but I have not had the time to go all the way through the box yet. Shipped good enough to drop out of a plane at high altitude and land un-damaged. :lol: :LOL: Guys this is just another great experience dealing with Nick in a long line of fine deals with him. If you need anything, CALL NICK 1ST. :yes: He has thge mind set to REALLY BE HELPFUL, not high geared into , GET THE MONEY. I will now be able to set up the Uberschall tomorrow nite when I get home from work. Nick has the best prices hands down on everything I have called about. YOU CAN'T BEAT A GUY TRYING TO DO RIGHT BY YOU. Everytime IO get a package from Nick or Nick's store ,ALTO SOUND AND MUSIC, MONSEY,New York, it always has something extra/free in it. which regardless of cost or size is just unselfish and COOL. Give him a shout. NICK'S THE MAN!
 
Were they the BHT's you got? If so, I be curious to hear how those fair compared to the winged c's. According to the description earlier in the thread they sound like my cup of tea.
 
The power tubes I got were the Ruby el-34 bstr's Pc rated for 60 tc rated at 3700. According to what I gather these have a higher headroom, pc at 60 so they would handle the uber good and I would get the dist./ breakup from the pre-amp section with this aet-up. Nick ran these same tubes liek this in his Uberschall and I believe he posted some clips with this tubes set-up in the uber. Officially these are not on the recommended list to handle the uber's ratiing but Nick ran these for quite a while and they did just fine. These are basically shuguang's tested and re-labeled by Ruby. I guess we will see. :)
 
The tube quest....just give me a piece of rope now. It does get old. :confused:

I have settled into SED Winged C EL34's for the VH4 and Uberschall. They seem to be able handle the gain, keep some headroom when needed and knock on wood, I haven't had one to fail.

On the preamp end, I was going all C9's across the board. As that was too easy, and usually was too noisy, I started mixing it up a little bit and so for now, this is what is working me and my standard set up:

V1: Tung-Sol reissue 12AX7. These can drive the gain across all channels and really have nice mircophonic traits and generate very little his or noise. I like em there.
V2, V3 (and V4 in the VH4): For the rest of the gain stack, I am liking the Sovtek 12AX7 LPS. The long plates seem to work very well for the gain.
V4, V5 which are usually loop drivers get the JJ 12AX7's. Tonally, you can run anything here as they don't affect the output and are cheap.
V6 (and V7 in the VH4) get a gold plated and balanced JJ 12AX7. This is for the phase inversion and the balanced triode will keep the noise away and all the phase issues across the gain stages.

Another reason I do it this way is so, I don't have to keep up with what is high gain, balanced, cheap, etc. So, I started branding the V selections and find that it makes it easier down the road. My main concern is maxing the gain vs. noise. This combo seems to work well for me.

Steve
 
According to Bogner v-3 and v-5 should not have a long plate pre-amp tube in those slots. Last thing Charlie at Bogner told me monday.. :confused: I am grabbing 2 to 4 of about every brand of pre-amp 12ax7 that I look at and hear decnt things about, I have 4 new EH's, 4 ruby c-5 hg's which are also chinese 9th gen's , 2-JJ hg's, 3-GT-12ax7 c's, whiich are chinese 9th gen's, 1 mullard re-issue 12ax-7, 1 old school GE , 3 0r 4 JJ regular gain 12 ax-7's, 4 sovtek 12 ax-7 wa's, elmwood branded, and I am gonna try to get my hands on the Tung-sol pre's tommorow. I have a ton of pre's stored up, but these I am pulling together in the last few days so Sunday I can roll a few tubes and HEAR FOR MYSELF. :yes: have I missed any good brand or version? I already have sovtek lps's and NOS mullards........
 
You can open up your own tubes store then!

I wonder why Charlie didn't like the LPS in V3 and V4? 4 is a loop driver and has no affect on tone.

Steve
 
It was v-3 and v-5. I am not sure but Charlie said they used the ARS labeled tubes/12ax-7's in those spots. And those tubes are just the chinese 12ax-7's. I am gonna grab a few more brands and see what I can with the uber for myself. Then I'll use the others in one of my other amps somewhere, sometime. :yes:
 
V3 & V5 are the cathode follower positions in the Uber. There are certain tubes, the Sovtek LPS being one of them, that you should not use in cathode follower positions. I don't know all the technical details, but problems can arise and potentially damage your amp. There's a thread on here started by James Peters and he gets into the details of it. I tried to find it and link, but couldn't. If you just do a search for cathode follower you'll find some stuff though.
 
fearhk213":1ak923cl said:
V3 & V5 are the cathode follower positions in the Uber. There are certain tubes, the Sovtek LPS being one of them, that you should not use in cathode follower positions. I don't know all the technical details, but problems can arise and potentially damage your amp. There's a thread on here started by James Peters and he gets into the details of it. I tried to find it and link, but couldn't. If you just do a search for cathode follower you'll find some stuff though.
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Cheers mate. Pulling tubes now.... :doh:

Steve
 
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