Bottlehead Forum
Bottlehead Kits => Legacy Kit Products => Quickie => Topic started by: mortron on July 08, 2013, 09:03:52 AM
-
I'm up to two pair of RCA and a pair of old used Mullards for my Quickie... And am looking for something different. I've read the various threads commenting on sounds of tubes. I run a SS amp, and am enjoying the RCA currently. It's far from great, but not bad. All retailers seem to have the typical RCA, GE or Sylvania tubes only.
-
Hey Mort - What I did was just buy as many different kinds of cheap tubes I could, and do some rolling. Get those $2 a pop tubes out there, even if you dont know what you are getting. You might get a GE, or an Aladdin. All good. Sometimes a particular tube sounds the best with say, classical, or rock, etc. You never know what is going to blend with your system. Of course the Telefunkins are the hot item, hard to find. I have them in, and will leave them in.... Until I get the yen to do some rolling...
-
The old RCA's are really quite nice- warm, open with great imaging and soundstage. I like them better than Sylvanias., GE and Tungsol for jazz, female voice and small ensemble classical music. I have some Mullards that I have to try, but I am just not currently compelled to pull the RCA's. Generally I usually prefer the Mullard sonic signature.
I am currently running the Q into Paramour 2A3's and econowave type speakers. Be interested in your feedback after trying other "flavors"!!
Cheers,
Geary
-
The RCA's are nice. They are my second favorite to the teles's.
-
the NOS seimens are quite nice as well... a little more lively than the teles... awesome for listening to electronica.
-
If I had a switching device to go from one tube to another(maybe a max of three different tubes to choose from), THEN I would be happier.
-
If I had a switching device to go from one tube to another(maybe a max of three different tubes to choose from), THEN I would be happier.
I'm jealous you have enough tubes to.... Roll... Like that :D
-
I have a number of 12AX7 Orange globe Amperex tubes. They were the tube of choice at ARC when they made the SP3- etc.
-
Funny, I have an amp that takes 20 12AX7s... Would love some teles, but way too expensive...
-
Pardon my ignorance here, but why would there be so many 12ax7 tubes?
-
The 12AX7 was a tube of choice in many "classic" preamps. The McIntosh tubed preamps and the Audio Research Corp's SP3-a-1 to name two.
-
Yea, I have an SP3a that really needs a full set of 12ax7s ...John
-
Years ago, someone built a P-P amp with multiple parallel 12AX7s as the power stage.
-
So, Chris you say that there are 20! 12ax7 tubes in your amp, or did I misread your post?
-
There seems to be fair number of 3s4's on ebay these days. Kind of curious about those from the U.S. Navy. I also would like to get some Raytheon tubes at some point. Big Raytheon presence here in Tucson.
-
Raytheon "glows" So far I have only used the stock tubes and some original Tesla tubes. I'm afraid that I would quite mad, daring to use more.
-
There seems to be fair number of 3s4's on ebay these days. Kind of curious about those from the U.S. Navy. I also would like to get some Raytheon tubes at some point. Big Raytheon presence here in Tucson.
I'm quite pleased with sylvania from us navy, very little microphonic, but stay away from mullard JAN...very microphonic and with lots of flaws.
Recently I bought 8 pieces of the french tubes Q was sold with as a spare parts... ;D
My experience is based on JAN Sylvania, RCA, JAN Mullard... I'd love to have a pair of Telefunken :)
-
For some reason, it seems that is more variance in these tubes than other types. Whatever you decide, I would try to get original stock. Actually, that's probably all that is out there.
-
I'm quite pleased with Sylvania from us navy, very little microphonic, . . .
I am another fan of the JAN (Joint Army Navy) Sylvania. They have additional bracing for military duty. They have never disappointed me. Now I need some JAN Sylvania 45s.
-
I am another fan of the JAN (Joint Army Navy) Sylvania. They have additional bracing for military duty. They have never disappointed me. Now I need some JAN Sylvania 45s.
As you can image from one of my posts I have a pair of JAN Sylvania 46 :)
That's why I was wondering if Stereomour is also 46 compatible...
-
Super sorry 4k, I didnt see your post... yes, you read it correctly and Sir Paul described the very amp... "Years ago, someone built a P-P amp with multiple parallel 12AX7s as the power stage."...... I happen to have that amp, it uses the 12ax7 tube as the output drivers yielding about 2 watts per 12ax7... it uses the 12au7 as the input driver stage.... I love it because it is a unique and interesting "out of the box" design... so when everybody is ordering 2 300bs, 2 2a3s, 4 el34s etc... I have to order 20 12ax7s...... :)
-
I was at Burning Amp, a couple of years ago. Nelson Pass had this. There is just as many on the other side...John
-
Thanks Chris, It just didn't sound right when you wrote it. Thinking out of the box is a good thing. Speaking of boxes, look around you. EVERYTHING! is a box. We live in them, we work in them, we listen to them. It's refreshing to see a few designs here and there in this world that trash the box (no, I don't live in a geodesic dome).
-
THAT is NOT the sound of one hand clapping. I think that phrase is a great analogy for SET.
-
Yep, well said 4k... I seem to always be attracted to unique designs and technologies.. Not sure why...
-
Thanks, sometimes it feels like there is a whole civilization out there living THAT way, and here I am, standing alone in a field....with one hand clapping.
-
Folks do know that if you ask a Master what the sound of "one hand clapping" is - he hauls off and slaps you right across the mouth?
-
Yes, I stand alone slapping my own forehead. I said foreHEAD, geeez
-
Hahaha..
-
Raytheon for sure!!
I've also found that burning them in on my tube test for an hour makes a big difference in the sound of all 3s4 tubes.
Hope this helps
Jason
-
I left my Quickie on overnite once. I wondered if it made any difference. Something tells me that most of the tubes that we buy for this kit have relatively few hours on them, and many of them may not even be burned in all the way.
-
I left my Quickie on overnite once.
This is very, very easy to do with the Quickie, which is why I installed an LED in my build, and would recommend that others do the same. It is a dead simple and quite cheap mod. Frankly, I think an LED should be included in the kit, although I realize that goes against the minimalist approach and the Bottlehead team prefers to leave those decisions up to each builder.
-
I left my Quickie on overnite once. I wondered if it made any difference. Something tells me that most of the tubes that we buy for this kit have relatively few hours on them, and many of them may not even be burned in all the way.
I don't believe we have ever packaged Quickies with used 3S4's, as used 3S4's are nearly impossible to find.
-
Yes, and when we go to buy more, they are new as well. I still had a kid like moment taking the cellophane stripe off the tube box like a pack of Salems.
-
I left my Q on all night last night... Thats one thing I like about batteries. When the heater batteries go dead - then its off. I use AA rechargeables. They dont last a whole night on... Those tubes will probably outlive us anyway... no worries. We'll be in an old fucks home and the tubes in the Q will still be good. - dont know about you, but - thats where I'll be - looking forward to it too....
-
Don't they have a restraining order against you?
-
Don't they have a restraining order against you?
No, that was my cousin... Billy Bob, you remember him?