tubes 6dn7

[tuffy_puppy]

hello all,  since i have gotten my s e x 2.1 amp  i have been able to find different name brands of tubes for it only on ebay.  ge, sylvania, westinghouse and rca are the brands i have been using.  anyone have other ideas and sources?  also, is there a tube considered to be "elite"?  have been considering getting some of them cryo treated.  any opinions about that?  thanks,  don pettit, long beach, washington

[porcupunctis]

I've tried the Westinghouse, RCA, and Sylvania's.  All sound good with nuances that may suit one taste or another.  I'm not aware of any "holy grail" 6DN7 tubes but I would be curious to hear what others have to say. 

[vetmed]

I've tried many over the years and to my ears there is not much difference. IIRC there were essentially only a couple of factories that made all of them, with different labels as needed. Have a look at the construction details, I think you will find there are more similarities than differences in most of the tubes, regardless of labelling.



Robert Lees

[Doc B.]

The only ones that I thought sounded a bit different were a pair of Tung Sols. That is not to say they were better, just a little bit different. Maybe a little more bass emphasis or maybe a little less treble. Pretty subtle, not worth making them into some sort of mythical thing that goes for stupid money on ebay.

[Clark B.]

This is my "best pair," but like Doc said, not much different if at all.  I've had the GEs and liked them alot too.  Wore out a few pair of GEs from constant use.  This has been my woodshop, long road trip car audio and gig (offsite demonstration) amp for years... Its been very faithful and I still hear new stuff in the music occasionally.

But back to the topic: while nice, the Tung Sols are likely identical to the GEs.  Very subtle differences that might be due to tube variation beyond brand variation.  To change the sound to taste, coupling caps are always an easy/effective route, IMO.

-Clark