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We just bought a pair of Monarchy SE-250 monoblocks which sound fantastic. As an input tube each has a Mitsubishi 12AU7. Does anyone know anything about this tube or Mitsubishi tubes in general? I did a search but did not come up with much. Thanks
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A lot of people really like the clear tops, but they didn't do anything for me. In fact, I found the 12AU7 to be rather boring as far as tube rolling is concerned.If you discover one that you like then you are ahead of the game as far as I am concerned. I rolled about 10 pairs into several of my amps and finally settled in on the Tung-Sol from the late 40s and early 50s. The JAN black plates were the only others that I thought were notable.
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I've got a bunch of Japanese NOS small tubes and while these aren't bad; these haven't proved to be anything really specialFortunately 12AU7's don't fetch quite the silly money 12AX7s do
I personally prefer older USA tubes; from what ones I have "BALDWIN" labelled ( most likely 1950's/early 60's General Electrics ) have lasted extremely well and sound the most musical in my Preamp
$3.00 each ( $30.00 for a set of 10 ) NOS off of Ebay
The USA has a 5814 thats a nice sub. for 12AU7, and the ECC82 is the UK/Europe equivalent
Thanks for the info. My preamp has RCA cleartops that are labled Conn so are cheaper than those badged RCA. They are very good. I immediately noticed the improvement when I replaced the stock JJ 12Au7s. I'll probably replace the Mitsubishi's later.
Black plate USA tubes; GE's are common, but very good in terms of long service life and neutrality
I'm new to tube rolling so I really have no idea how a particular tube would compare to the majority of the others. I do know the Conn(RCA) tubes sound alot better than the JJ's they replaced. When it comes time to replace the 12AU7's in my power amps I was thinking of some of the European variants,Amperex,Telefunken,ect.
and success in tube rolling is to keep an open mind and listen to whether the changes you make are an improvement, or a sideways move
GE, Raytheon, JAN ( Military ), 5814/5814A, 5963, 6189's Tung Sol, SylvaniaI've owned and used Mullards, Telefunkens and Amperex BB's of varying vintages and while these are great tubes; the USA tubes are better buying
Thanks again for the feedback. I take it that the above list GE,Raytheon,etc are worth trying. I'm not interested in name dropping, the tube that sounds best is the goal. Got some other minor tweaks to do before I start tube rolling. Change only one variable at a time!
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