Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tubes Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: CJ Premier 12 retubing 6550

Posted by tvr2500m (A) on January 19, 2016 at 21:43:54

In Reply to: CJ Premier 12 retubing 6550 posted by cjspu on January 18, 2016 at 09:07:01:

I lived for a long while with a Premier 11A and Premier 12s (had four of them at one point, which was FAR too many and informed my current path to get small). The OE tube complement would have been: GE 6550As, late-production GE JAN 5751s, and late-production GE 6FQ7s (sometimes JANs). Later, CJ used the SED 6550C.

Which to use? Where to buy them? Good questions. All the tube positions in these amplifiers are responsive to tube changes. I rolled pretty much every known 6550/KT88, 5751, and 6CG7/6FQ7 through them. As always, which one/s I preferred were a matter of the context of the rest of the system. Roll to suit your preferences for synergy in a particular system.

The GE 6550A is a fine tube. I typically enjoyed and much preferred the earlier welded plate type, and I ended up a little obsessed with collecting the crimped/stapled plate JAN tubes. Maybe it was those gray military boxes and green print...

Of the US-made 6550s, my favorite usually ended up being the Sylvania.

My most favorite output tubes were all Shuguangs - the 6550A-98, 6550B, the GEKT88 and KT88-98.

Next to the Shuggies, I liked the SED 6550C. I don't know the state of SED today, but the SED 6550C was an outstanding tube in every way - sounded great, long lived, reliable, even looked kinda nice. I can remember visiting Audio Research way back when they had burn in and testing racks loaded with Shuguang ST-shaped 6550s. The were very happy with the way the tube sounded, but very unhappy with the reliability. So, they switched to the SED 6550C.

Had some Gold Lion KT88 reissues that were fabulously good, had some that weren't.

There're now a number of new 6550s (TS Reissue, and others) and KT88s (EAT, TJ FullMusic, et al)that have come out that I haven't used, and some uber high end ones that I also haven't tried.

The OE GE small tubes are okay. Certainly sound all right and are plenty reliable and durable. There was never an occasion when I found them at the top of my list of favorites. Just about anything bettered them. A Sylvania 3 mica gray plate (which I generally preferred to the black plates), GE 3 mica black or gray plate were all very good sounding.

For 6CG7s/6FQ7s, the top pick was typically the late-1950s Sylvania 6CG7 with the gray plates and D getter, usually military branded and in felt-padded mil packing. Crackin' great tube. The black plate RCA 6CG7 was almost always a winner (the more typical one has a large D getter, the earlier ones have a smaller getter). I have some Hitachi 6CG7s that I loved in these amps. The RCA clear tops could be good, either the 6CG7 or 6FQ7. The current production EH could be very good, too.

Of course the only way to know what you like is to listened to the tubes with you own ears in your own gear.

No question about the quality of the sellers that people have mentioned. If peace of mind is the top order, order from them.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---