(13 votes, average: 3.85 out of 5)
Loading...“I do believe I’m in love. The Raytheon black plate 3 mice (1961)
is truly wonderful. I do like it better even than a GE BP 3-mica (1957).
clarity, dynamics, bass. yum.”
” Sweet and smooth Raytheon 5751 tubes with the rare four bladed windmill shape top getter. Rich and smooth tone with quiet background.” Read
This is one of the most famous US tubes. A lot of reviews were published about this tube. So I got a set – it’s getting very hard to find. The tube sounded great, but it didn’t blow me away. The sounds stage was smaller compared to Raytheon 5751 BP 3M and the mids were not as sweet as luscious as Sylvania GB. Highs were also not as extended and not as sweet as other 5 star tubes. I wouldn’t put it into 4 stars – it’s about 4.5. I’ll give it another try later on with another amp, but both Dared and McIntosh showed the same behavior.
Today I gave this tube another try with a different amp – I have to say that I’m impressed. That day I was rolling various 5751s through the amp and two tubes stood out of the rest – Sylvania GB & this one. What separated this tube from the other is how impressively dynamic it is. Very fast and direct attack that was only produced by this tube. Very cool sound and perfect for hard rock.
The Raytheon “windmill getter” 5751 is by far the best 5751 ever made; in equipment that has simply too much tube bloom or artificially warm and mellow sonics, the Raytheon 5751 can “thin out” the mids a bit while remaining very dynamic and having killer bass.
I’m not normally in favor at all of using 5751s in place of 12AX7s in gear that was DESIGNED to use 12AX7s, but in my fully upgraded EAR 834P MM/MC phono stage, I use a 5751 in the V3 position, the cathode follower. Here the slightly better drive and punch of a great 5751 like the Raytheon can really have a synergistic effect.
Strangely, I don’t care at all for RCA 5751s. I am kind of unsure exactly HOW they were made to be such un-involving, flat, colorless tubes, but they just suck the life out of anything I try them in.
Another great 5751 is the long plate Tung Sol which has plates identical to their long plate 12AX7 tubes. While not as musical as the Raytheon windmill, they are really quite good tubes and work well as phase splitters, drivers and cathode followers. The Tung Sol is the perfect tube for the McIntosh MC30/MC60/MC225/MC240, both as the V1 input and especially the final drive position as part of the “bootstrapped driver” right before the output tubes. The Mac amps run this tube OVER max specification at around 340 VDC and also exceed the plate current limit so having a really tough tube like the TungSol 5751 there is a great choice.