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Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ

Tried both, and I can't really tell!

I'm a CAV-50 owner for nearly 2 years. During this time, I've tried a mix of EL34 tubes in the unit. The only new tubes I bought (and received yet) were a quad of E-H 6CA7 which worked good for weeks until one blew the fuse. Right now I am using two 6CA7 and two "old" EL34 -- a Phillips and a E-H.

I have a pair of Groove Tube EL34-LS on order; they are recommended by some folks here (for guitar amps, at least!)

I'll admit that I can't hear a great deal of difference between tube types (short of the easy cases, like the whine as the old tube died). I am sure that differences exist, but also there is the ever-present "psychological" aspect of our hobby (more commonly known as "bullshit"!!!). Anyway, that's half the fun of audio, I guess.

The CAV-50, I think I read here somewhere, is less dependent upon specific tube type, matched quad, etc. Because each tube can be individual biased.

While I haven't tried it, I would think you could do a A-B test of two different pairs of tubes (left or right), if you can feed a mono signal to your amp.

You can find a lot of old posts on the CAV-50 if you do a search here.


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