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In Reply to: RE: New Tubes posted by jumpsturdy on December 10, 2013 at 12:58:16
A friend of mine and I ordered a slew of the Billie Gee 12AT7s about three years ago (for the phono stage of my MP-1 and for his MP-3). All eight of mine were shot well within 500-700 hours of use. Same story with the boutique level Chinese Synergy Create 6SN7s I bought for the line stage. Therefore, I stick with Andy Bowman although he has not been able to fill an order for 12AT7s completely (half done now) since I placed it about a year ago. NOS phono stage quality 12AT7s have, per Andy, gone the way of the dodo bird.
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I assume so. The important question is did you like their 12AT7s, before they wore out? And what circuit were you using them in? What were the plate voltage and current? Running them near to 100% of rated values can prematurely wear out any tube. I don't argue that one has a right to expect longer life from new tubes, if properly used. It's not out of the question that 500 to 700 hours is about what I got from the Billington E81CC-01 (a fancy name for 12AT7).
Second to the Billingtons were GE 6201s, especially the ones with stars on the glass envelope. But those were NOS and probably just no longer available, unless you got connections. Mullard CV4024 were good, too.
I'm not sure you can run a 12AT7 that hard and expect it to be quiet enough for phono stage use...
500-700 hours is insanely low.
I should have posted my response under your comment instead the OP's post and it would have been clearer about the Billie Gee thing as you were the one who brought them up.In my case, they were used in the only place possible in the MP-1...the phono stage. As far as how they sounded, as compared to the Amperex Bugle Boys I had gotten from Andy and the non NOS Mullards (origin unknown) I got from Upscale Audio, they did not distinguish themselves nor were they a disappointment in any way. Just short lived.
Edits: 12/12/13
I used the Billingtons only as the input voltage amplifier in my Atma-sphere monoblocks, IIRC. That's a dual-differential cascode (not too different from the phono input stage, actually). The tubes are not run very hard in that application. The BGs sounded glorious. Head and shoulders better than the other contenders, which included GE 6201 "gold pin", Mullard CV4024, Phillips 12AT7, and more. All of the latter were NOS, not used prior. Even when the transconductance dropped by about 40% after so little use, they still sounded "good". By then, BG stopped carrying the "E81CC-01" designation; they still were selling Chinese-made 12AT7s, however. Perhaps they dropped the line because of complaints about the short lifespan.
I don't think I ever tried E81CC-01 in the MP1 phono stage. I subsequently modified my amplifiers to accept 5687s at the input (actually, I use 6900s, because I had a bunch). So I have no need for 12AT7s right now. Still got a bunch of used Mullards and GE, however.
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