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Tube rolling the Paramours: more experiences

162.83.197.64

Posted by Patrick on June 9, 2001 at 13:17:05

I've engaged in some tube purchases recently and rolled the tubes on my Paramours. Here is my report:

• RCA double blackplate 2A3s:

An absolutely lovely change. These tubes are staying. No, I haven't heard the monoplates or the famous AVVT meshies, but it's hard to imagine a sweeter, clearer sound than I'm getting from these. Mids and highs are easier on my Cornwalls. The bass is much more defined -- you can hear the bass strings being plucked in the Stone Poneys' "Different Drum". Simply musical. A huge improvement from the stock Valve Arts. (And I liked those better than the Sovtek 2A3s that were reviewed favorably in the Listener.) I paid $144 for the RCAs.

• GE 5-Star 6201 12AT7s:

Picked these up on recommendation from the Tubes Asylum as being preferable to the much-vaunted British 12AT7s. $20 for the pair. They replaced the stock GE 12AT7s that came with my Paramours (don't know what type of GEs -- the lettering's rubbed off too much -- but they're not the 5-Stars). Too lean-sounding for my tastes. I also felt that the sound was less cohesive, more separated at the frequency extremes. I didn't like these at all and took them out after a day. It's possible that they need more breaking in.

• Brimar Black Plate ECC-81 12AT7s:

Another Tubes Asylum recommendation -- also from Joe S. I believe (not on his page, which never got to the 12AT7s) -- and in distinct contrast to the GE 5-Stars. Rich, warm, deep... made the mids and highs even sweeter from the Cornwalls. However, the improvement in those frequencies was offset by an unpleasant punchiness in the bass attack. I tried a bunch of music with these tubes for 2 days. I found I was able to play music much more loudly and it still sounded comfortable. However, the sweetness was a bit too much in my system, and I didn't like what it did to the Cornwall woofers, so I put my stock tubes back in.

Conclusion: The RCA 2A3s are keepers. In the end, I've gone back to my stock GE NOS tubes for the 12AT7s. For now this sounds the best in my system. After I get my new Cornwall crossovers built, installed and broken in, I may roll the 12AT7s some more (and give the 5-Stars some more break-in time) to see what things are like then.

For now, I'm just enjoying the music!

Patrick

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