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In Reply to: Opinions: Vintage Tung-Sol 12AX7 Made in USA? posted by audiophile121 on April 23, 2006 at 10:35:22:
NO. There was some "shootout" where the TungSol was praised WAY beyond what it deserves-- it's a nice 12AX7, but the longplate RCAs WASTE them. Besides, I have had many TungSol 12AX7s in the past, and the early blackplates often seemed to be made by other tube companies FOR TungSol. This is only an opinion based on extensive listening to the TungSols and comparing them extensively--sonically and visually-- to the 2-3 companies I think made some early TungSols, but several "old timers" (Ham guys and 1970s-2006 tube-o-philes)say the same thing, that TungSol DID make 12AX7, but ften sourced from Sylvania and Raytheon. I had several that were indistinguishable sonically from blackplate Sylvanias. I KNOW I KNOW you can't judge by looks, but I judged by sonics, and backed that up with observations that the internals of the TungSols, from the micas, getter and many other cues looked dead on like the Sylvanias and Raytheons (Oh boy, I can see the flames coming to rip me apart on this post already!) Later greyplate/longplate TungSols, IMHO are a mediocre tube and their short plate version is not worth bothering with. The long greyplates sound like GE longplate to me (and not the rare version GE). Whether I am right or wrong on the above, I stand by my sonic observations-- TungSols are WAY overrated and overpriced, many TungSol 12AX7s sound like Raytheons; bright and a bit thin in the mids. Others sound like Sylvanias, but are priced way too high. Go with RCAs, shortplate/copper gridpost Mullards, Dutch Amperex, or early Siemens. 1970s Tungsrams are nice too-- check out www.tubemonger.com for their seletion of 12AX7s. They are an asylum sponsor, and have great 12AX7s.
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Follow Ups
- Re: Opinions: Vintage Tung-Sol 12AX7 Made in USA? - ARC 13:18:50 04/23/06 (0)