Tube replacement suggestions for mic pre
- slowcentury
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Tube replacement suggestions for mic pre
I have a TL Audio Ivory 5001 and I want to swap the preamp tube out, Any suggestions out there. I have been toying with the idea of buying some NOS Telefunkens but they are rather pricey.
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I was just reading the interview with Steve Hoffman on the main site wherein he talks about warming up some of his remasters by passing them through Telefunken 12ax7's. Out of curiosity, I looked at tubedepot.com, from which I've gotten tubes before. They have three NOS Tele 12ax7's...for $1,300 a piece. I swapped in some mullards into some "prosumer pre's," (I hate that word, but I'll use it anyway,) and it made a difference over the cheap no-name chinese tubes.
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This probably doesn't help at all, but i have an altec tube pre clone. I've tried pretty much every kind of 7 tube in it, ax7s, at7s, etc. and finally settled on black plate at7s. For this particular pre (with miles and miles of gain) the ge at7s are so much smoother and clearer than anything else i've tried. Don't know how they'd be in any other pre though...
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- Mudcloth
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My experience with swapping out 12AX7 tubes in my Altec 1566As was eye opening.
I thought the Ruby 12AX7 AC7 HG+ bested the reissue Tungsol 12AX7 and the reissue Mullard 12AX7. It just sounded more hi-fi, for lack of a better term. The highs were crisper and it sounded more transparent in general. I wasn't expecting that.
The Tungsol and Mullards sounded much better in my Fender tube amps, though.
Go figure.
2 cents.
I thought the Ruby 12AX7 AC7 HG+ bested the reissue Tungsol 12AX7 and the reissue Mullard 12AX7. It just sounded more hi-fi, for lack of a better term. The highs were crisper and it sounded more transparent in general. I wasn't expecting that.
The Tungsol and Mullards sounded much better in my Fender tube amps, though.
Go figure.
2 cents.
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Mudcloth wrote: The Tungsol and Mullards sounded much better in my Fender tube amps, though.
Go figure.
2 cents.
IME Mullards have a really nice "wooly" effect in the preamp section of an amp...Fender or Vox. I like them alot. Some people call them hi-fi, but I hear more of what I think of as hi-fi in tubes like RCA's and GE's. Smooth and uncolored. Brightness comes out from Philips tubes I've tried and it's always a very glowing brightness...sunny.
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Teles will be brighter as a general rule. Mullards will give a smoother warmer sound. A really sweet preamp tube if you can find them is the Sylvania red label. These sound like mullards with a little more forward mid range. I've tried various RCAs as well. Most of the RCAs I've tried sounded boxy to me. The exception is the 5751 Command series. Very nice tube but slightly lower gain than the typical 12 AX7 and expensive.
RobCoates
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Those are Telefunken ECC803S, which are much, much scarcer than Tele ECC83.AndyHutchinson wrote:I was just reading the interview with Steve Hoffman on the main site wherein he talks about warming up some of his remasters by passing them through Telefunken 12ax7's. Out of curiosity, I looked at tubedepot.com, from which I've gotten tubes before. They have three NOS Tele 12ax7's...for $1,300 a piece.
I'm a fairly serious tube collector; for comparison I've got hundreds of old 12AX7 types, including a half dozen Mullard "10M" ECC83, which are considered rare and valuable; and I've never seen a Tele ECC803S in person.
NOS Tele ECC83 are typically $80-150. They're a nice, fairly flat response low noise tube. But there are lots of good clean sounding preamp tubes. The new production JJ/Tesla ECC803 is a pretty good substitute and they're $15.
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