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Re: Stock EL34 tubes ID in Cayin A-50T

Posted by Catch22 (A) on April 19, 2007 at 19:02:59

In Reply to: Stock EL34 tubes ID in Cayin A-50T posted by R7 on April 19, 2007 at 16:17:50:

I'm pretty sure the Cayin uses Chinese power tubes. I used the A-50T for several months earlier this year. Frankly, I found the amp to be almost unlistenable with the stock tube compliment. I know that's an all too often exageration in describing sonics, but it was one of the most etchy, bright and uninvolving amps I have heard. There was absolutely zero mid range warmth and the beloved "tube" sound was non existent.

The good news is that it responded very well to tube rolling and the Achilles heal just so happened to be those power tubes. I first swapped the EH 12AU7 tubes for some late 40s Tung-Sol black glass that I had used in the past and this helped, but to my surprise not nearly as much as with other amps I've used them in. I then swapped the 12AX7 tubes for some current ECC803S Tung-Sol reissues mostly because I am familiar with them and they are, if nothing else, very quiet and linear. This surprised me a little in that the amp didn't sound even worse, but actually responded to the better tubes in being less etchy, though still only slightly better.

Changing the output tubes to Ei fat bottle 6CA7 tubes completely altered the character of this amp. The etch totally disappeared and the glorious midrange and round bass was immediately apparent. I ended up using the above tube compliment after numerous experiments with a host of other tube combinations and wasn't able to better it.

All I can tell you is to get rid of those output tubes. They suck in a big, big way.

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