PutPineappleOnPizza t1_jat1i39 wrote on March 3, 2023 at 9:20 PM

>stock tubes are utter trash

Amp comes with a full set of JJ tubes lol.

I always wonder why vintage tubes are held in such high regard. I recently got a very old Sylvania 6SN7GTB, the one with a chrome top and yellow font, and to be honest, with the grain of salt that my amp is on the budget side of things, JJ 6SN7, Tung-Sol 6SN7 and EH 6SN7 Gold are all just as good from my testing.

Maybe all of this is very circuitory dependant, but my vintage tube experience has been a letdown so far. Most of the tubes hummed and some sounded very flat. The Sylvania tube sounds great, but it's not a huge change from all the newer stuff I've mentioned.

Just did a quick test with the Sylvania against the JJ6SN7: vocals are a little richer on the NOS tube, but only ever so slightly, like a 5% difference imo

GooseEntire1705 OP t1_jat3ei6 wrote on March 3, 2023 at 9:33 PM

It's also the reflektor 6v6 tubes that were installed not just the sylvanias.

xymordos t1_jawpsq5 wrote on March 4, 2023 at 5:38 PM

Yeah, for me I tried to use 6SN7 tubes and ended up with PSVane since it had less buzz.

PutPineappleOnPizza t1_jax8cdm wrote on March 4, 2023 at 7:44 PM

Nice! For me it was the Sylvania that has absolutely no humming. But I had great luck with Tung-Sol and EH too (after an actual burn in period of 24-48 hours on the EH).

But some tubes crackle when I move my potentiometer, which I find super weird. The Sylvania is the only one not doing that.

xymordos t1_jazw90b wrote on March 5, 2023 at 10:17 AM

Yeah it seems to come down to chance sadly. My Sylvania had a buzz that didn't go away after burn in, but the new PSVane's were perfectly fine. I tried some WE403a and the GE replacement and the GE were good but WE weren't.