“A bit fuller, richer and a bit more vibrant than the RFTs, not clinical, but still good detail. A more traditional NOS sound.” Read
“if you have to use a 12AU7, then the cleartops are quite good. “ Read
RCA 12au7 Clear Top
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Author Archives: tubemaze
Sylvania 12bh7 Dark Gray Plates
” Much clearer and more musical. Pleasant, well-modulated detail. Possibly a little noisy in the mid-range, but still one of my favorites so far.” Read
CBS 12bh7 Carbon Black Plates
EI 12au7 Smooth Plates
“Generally speaking I would describe these tubes as tonal neutrality
I like them better than the JJ/Tesla 12AU7” Read
Sylvania CHS 5963 Gray Plates
Electro-Harmonix 12ax7
“This Russian tube is full bodied and bright with a more straightforward presentation. It packs a lot of bite with its higher than normal gain.” Read
Continue readingTelefunken 12ax7 smooth plates
The tube is the king of the tubes if used with care. This is superbly detailed tube with huge sound stage. Could be an overkill for a bright system, because it will make the system sound clinically bright and lifeless, but if mixed with warm sounding tubes (anything with black plates), it can produce and incredible sound that other tubes will be envious off 🙂
“Watch for the rare Telefunken smoothplates with a cloth label on the glass marked “selected tube”. Often these have red painted tips. . . These were all screened for critical use in medical equipment, with the “selected tube” or L&N versions being the best. Both red and blue tips are incredibly quiet and very three dimensional in sound.” Read
Continue reading12au7 gray plates
There is not much to say for the tubes. They all sound similar. All sound bad. Not worth the money that you would stand on them. When they were released, tube hardware was not considered high-end. Now, since the tubes are used in high-end by audiophiles having them is just not a good match for the amps. Sell, sell, sell.
I tried Sylvania, RCA (a bit better than the others), Baldwin, GE, Motorola all with the same results.
The only exception is RCA clear top – they don’t come with black plates and they sound quite good.
Telefunken 12at7 smooth plates
“Regardless of what the Telefunken 12AT7s went into, they sounded consistent. The first thing people notice is that treble instruments are placed far back in the soundstage. In several rooms and systems, the hi hat on Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain” and cymbals from Megadeth’s “Disconnect” were placed behind the plane of the speakers.” Read
Continue readingGE 12ax7 Gray plates
“very quiet and tame medium gain tube. These were very well constructed back in the day and will provide hours and hours of vintage tone.”
“It is a great sounding tube, with wonderful air and detail. Helically-wound filaments for low hum and is quieter and more consistent than the ones they had partially assembled overseas later. If you want one of the better sounding 12AX7’s ever made and don’t want to pony up the big bucks for the Tele’s and so on, this is it!” Read