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In Reply to: RE: Chinese made GL ECC83 posted by TubeAcolyte on April 03, 2014 at 14:06:19
I have a pair of the Psvane 12AX7 natural series on the way. I have their 12AT7 and they sound excellent in my Decware Mini Torii.
The GL 12AX7 is on the warm side but in the right circuit sounds great.
The Psvane and GL small signal tubes take 100+ hours to settle in. Odd for a small signal tube but that was my experience.
Follow Ups:
Yeah, although I was originally quite enamored with the Russian GL 12AX's, I ultimately found them a little thick sounding. A really good tube to be sure, but not the right fit for me. The ones I was really digging before my pre went in the shop, is the JJ 803s. Great big plates and spiral heaters. Very nice. Looking forward to what Joe can tell us about these Chinese tubes. I think Joe's listening to a CAT too..
The JJ 802s is just as nice.
I had the same impression with regard to the GL ECC83 gold pin, not to my taste in the CAT, but was a good fit in my amp. I am hoping the steel pin version would be less "thick"(?)...
The JJ 802s are 12AU7, never tried those.
Did try the JJ 83s, found them a bit edgy/unrefined, didn't like the tone at all.
Joe, was it the ECC83 or the ECC803s? If it was the ECC83's then take a look at the ECC803s. Different construction altogether than the ECC83. I thought their ECC83 were kind of crappy too. Not super bad, but just not very good sounding.
Was the JJ83s, it fought for last place amongst the reissue 12ax7 lot of..
GL, TS, Chinese 12ax7b, Mullard and EH at a recent audition in an AudioNote pre. My friend (owner of the AN) liked the Chinese tube best as he felt they fell between the warmth/richness of the GL and the more extension/dimensionality of the TS. The EH lead the Mullard and the JJ.I guess I will have to try the JJ 803, I see they have long plates.
I got the Chinese GL ECC83 today, and they are in the amp. So far so good, will report back in a couple weeks.
Meant to ask...why is your CAT in the shop, manufacturer or independent?
Edits: 04/04/14
Joe,
It has had an intermittent problem in the left phono channel for a while that behaved like a cracked solder joint. When cold I would get an occasional "ziz thump" out of that channel, but when things got good an hot the issue disappears. I figured if something that simple, any competent tech should be able to fix it, so I found a local shop and took it to them. They did find a couple of spots around the left phono 12AX7 socket (right where I thought they would) and repaired them. It was going to be a couple of days before I could get to the shop and pick it up, so they had it all hooked up and let it play there in the shop. The tech said he was enjoying the sound of it so much he even brought a bunch of his own recordings from home to play. On the second day running in the shop it exhibited another problem in the line section, which they investigated. They found a shorted resistor and a leaky diode. Without any schematics he was a little stumped. He was reluctant to just replace parts without fully understanding the circuit. I asked him to call CAT which he did. Ended up speaking with Ken Stevens for well over an hour. Turns out the failed parts are a common failure on a CAT of this age and Ken told him that there was an upgrade to fix the problem that involved several parts in the power supply as well as the failed components. The tech was to have emailed Ken and Ken was to send him the write-up of the repair. If my tech feels comfortable with the work to be done, he'll get the parts from Ken and complete the repair. If not, I'll pick it up and send it to CAT in New York. My take-away from all this: I should've sent the danged thing to Ken in the first place. Nothing against the shop/tech here, but from a time to repair standpoint I probably could easily have sent it to Ken and had it back by now.
Live and learn I guess ...
The GL is a good tube...in the right circuit. I added a bypass cap and the GL became a little thick. At least we are seeing more decent new production small signal tubes. I'll have to get a pair of the JJ 803s.
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