Which tubes would you pair with these ARTs?

[Jrasia]

I recently purchased some tubes, hoping slightly improve the quality over the Chinese tubes that are currently in my ART preamps and compressor.

To save time swapping them in and out for comparison, which tubes would you pair with which compressor and preamps? ie, the mullards for the VLA?

ART MPA Gold
ART Digital MPA Gold
ART PRO VLA

2 Mullard 12AT7 - Matched & Ballanced
2 JJ ECC83S(12AX7) Gold Pin - Matched Triodes
2 JJ ECC83S(12AX7) - Balanced

Much appreciated,

Jay

[KennyLusk]

I would choose the AT7's for the pro vla and the JJ 83S's for the pre's time. But that's just me.

[Albert]

To save time swapping them in and out for comparison, which tubes would you pair with which compressor and preamps? ie, the mullards for the VLA?

This idea of "saving time" is where you make your mistake. You have the tubes, you have the gear, open the tops and swap the tubes in and out. Anything else is just laziness and guesswork.

You won't *know* what combinations work best until you hear it for yourself. Most everyone responding to your post will be guessing or estimating as well.

You've got the gear, put in the time and do it right. It really won't take that long. I'm sure that it will quickly become apparent to you which tubes work best with which hardware.

[Jrasia]

Trust me Albert, this is not a 'laziness' issue.

I have a client coming in this weekend, and between being out of the city for a couple of days, and working at my other job, I literally don't have time to compare them before they come in to record.
Sorry I didn't clarify that before hand.

I was just trying get peoples quick suggestions until I have further time to experiment.

I built every aspect of my studio with blood, sweat, and sometimes tears.

Jay

[river]

Jay, I don't own any of these particular items, but have 3 Pro MPA's, each with different tubes. One of them has the Mullards. It's best for acoustic guitars, piano and certain vocals. The AT7's, I'm pretty sure, have a gain factor of 70 instead of 100 which the AX7's have, so if you use AT's in a compressor, you might not get the makeup gain you expect. Also, the AT7's are very low noise, good for preamp use.

[digitaldrummer]

try this

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... highlight=

[Jrasia]

Thanks to everyone for their input.

I think for now I'll go with JJ12AX7s in the VLA, and the Mullards, and gold pin JJ's in the pres.

Maybe later on I'll report how they sound when I get more time to switch things around.

Jay