tubes to avoid?

[Coco]

I have bought from this guy with success. He tests and guarantees and has a shitload of NOS tubes in stock. www.audiotubes.com

[nacho459]

Tubes are like mexican food, it comes in so many different ways and so many people have different appetites that there is no one brand or tube that is the best.

As far as new tubes I like JJ's and SED's in guitar amp power sections, but I'll use Sovtec's in a pinch. For pre amp tubes I like the EI 12AX7's they are cheep and I like the way they break up more then JJ's. I am not a bug fan of Ruby tubes or any Chinese tubes because they tend to sound really glassy and burn up fast, especially their power tubes. Groove Tubes are just rebranded JJ and Sovtec tubes that they rate and match. I like to think that they are more reliable than off the shelf tubes, but as far as sound I can't hear any difference and for the most part I avoid them.

Now to all the sweet NOS tubes. I never buy tubes off ebay, and won't but NOS tubes from anyone that isn't reputable, just because it's an RCA doesn't mean it isn't 100 years old and doesn't sound like crap. You can buy "NOS" American tubes at APEX for $5. That said when I build something like a mic pre I usually sit down with 10 or so tubes and swap them out. I have several old GE, RCA, Sylvania, National, Amperex, etc. 12AX7's and a bunch or other new JJ, EI, GT, etc that I keep on hand for guitar amps. Usually the old "worn out" American tubes sound better then the new eastern Europian tubes. I just listen for witch ones that sound the best and leave those in. For me if a tube sounds a little worn out I don't care, maybe there's a little high end loss, but that doesn't bother me.

If you want to retube your guitar amp use whatever. If you are talking about retubeing your LA-2A use some NOS tubes. All the new tubes are just kinda hit or miss, and there are really only like 3 factories making tubes any more. Pretty much any NOS tube that isn't completely cashed out will sound better then any new tube.

[traveen]

Here's a site that reviewed some 12ax7 tubes in different areas:


http://www.thetubestore.com/12ax7review.html


and some el84's

http://thetubestore.com/el84review.html

I also bought some JJ's from these guys and was real happy.

Always been happy with JJ's, never had good luck with Ruby Tubes.

YMMV