Brimar is not a very well known tube in US because it was not imported as widely as Mullard. Brimar has character similar to Mullard, but it provides some advantages over Mullard for music where warmth AND details are important. It has warmth of Mullard, but not as much, but HF extension is far superior. It’s a more balanced tube without huge emphasis in one specific area. Very smooth sounding tube with huge amount of details, but without becoming icy as Telefunken tends to get and it definitely has more body than Tele. Since it’s not very well known, it could be had for much less than Tele or Mullard. So don’t hesitate, get it – you won’t be disappointed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I would have to agree with Nick on the superior treble extension of Brimars over Mullards. One has to look to Dutch Amperex (Philips)ECC82 to get better treble air and detail out of a European-manufactured ECC82. When buying a Brimar 12AU7, it is important to buy the version best suited to your planned application. I wouldn’t recommend standard Brimar long plate 12AU7/ECC82 tubes for high-gain linestage use; they have a tendency to have a slightly higher noise floor and medium incidence of microphonics in the standard longplate version… these long plate Brimar 12AU7s are best left for tube amplifier input and phase splitter circuits like used in many Williamson amplifiers (Heath W-3, W-4, W-5 etc)… where they truly shine (and sparkle on top!) FOR THE BEST BRIMAR 12AU7 experience, and especially for any use where super low noise and low microphonics are a MUST… give the two different Brimar “premium” versions of their 12AU7s a try! The “better” version Brimar 12AU7 is known as the 13D5; this is still widely available in Europe for reasonable prices but is almost unknown in the USA. BARGAIN price for premium sonics with the Brimar 13D5! For the “BEST” Brimar 12AU7 experience, such as for sensitive linestage and phonostage preamps using 12AU7s… look no further than Brimar’s special “T” series tubes (“T” for trustworthy). In this case, the Brimar T 6067 is the best version of the Brimar 12AU7. The T6067 absolutely walks all over many high-priced European ECC82s, and has an especially lifelike and natural treble band.. one of the best of any 12AU7. The Brimar 12AU7s are all quite good, but the 13D5 and T 6067 Brimars are in a class by themselves; they are TRULY great 12AU7 tubes.
Brimar is not a very well known tube in US because it was not imported as widely as Mullard. Brimar has character similar to Mullard, but it provides some advantages over Mullard for music where warmth AND details are important. It has warmth of Mullard, but not as much, but HF extension is far superior. It’s a more balanced tube without huge emphasis in one specific area. Very smooth sounding tube with huge amount of details, but without becoming icy as Telefunken tends to get and it definitely has more body than Tele. Since it’s not very well known, it could be had for much less than Tele or Mullard. So don’t hesitate, get it – you won’t be disappointed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I would have to agree with Nick on the superior treble extension of Brimars over Mullards. One has to look to Dutch Amperex (Philips)ECC82 to get better treble air and detail out of a European-manufactured ECC82. When buying a Brimar 12AU7, it is important to buy the version best suited to your planned application. I wouldn’t recommend standard Brimar long plate 12AU7/ECC82 tubes for high-gain linestage use; they have a tendency to have a slightly higher noise floor and medium incidence of microphonics in the standard longplate version… these long plate Brimar 12AU7s are best left for tube amplifier input and phase splitter circuits like used in many Williamson amplifiers (Heath W-3, W-4, W-5 etc)… where they truly shine (and sparkle on top!) FOR THE BEST BRIMAR 12AU7 experience, and especially for any use where super low noise and low microphonics are a MUST… give the two different Brimar “premium” versions of their 12AU7s a try! The “better” version Brimar 12AU7 is known as the 13D5; this is still widely available in Europe for reasonable prices but is almost unknown in the USA. BARGAIN price for premium sonics with the Brimar 13D5! For the “BEST” Brimar 12AU7 experience, such as for sensitive linestage and phonostage preamps using 12AU7s… look no further than Brimar’s special “T” series tubes (“T” for trustworthy). In this case, the Brimar T 6067 is the best version of the Brimar 12AU7. The T6067 absolutely walks all over many high-priced European ECC82s, and has an especially lifelike and natural treble band.. one of the best of any 12AU7. The Brimar 12AU7s are all quite good, but the 13D5 and T 6067 Brimars are in a class by themselves; they are TRULY great 12AU7 tubes.