Tubes Asylum

Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: 12ax7 for ARC SP16

Posted by Mechans on October 6, 2011 at 06:30:27:
My experience with rolling tubes in an ARC pre proved to me that I could do almost nothing to change the "gain from hell" using various 12--7 tubes. Indeed the first position in the three tube chain had the most noticable imoact on tone the other ttube seemed to have akmost no real impact. I happened to like the original OEM old stock tubes which were made for ARC by BEL of India. I also found that using 12AU7s did something which seemed to result in an awful lot of woofer travel and didn't sound any better but scared me.
5751s are usually my favorite 12AX7 type and worked out OK but the real "High Definition " signature ARC sonic was best heard using 12AX7s. I stopped using it in favor of a 6SN7 pre and left more than decent sounding Shuaguang 12AX7C9s and regular new production Tung Sol 12AX7s in it.