|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
Forgive me if this has been hashed to death, but I want recommendations for good replacement 6922's in my AI Modulus 3A. I haven't popped the top, but I think it probably has Sovtek's in now (orig. valves).Here is the operating environment:
Source is mostly vinyl on Rega Planar 3/Elys cart. and sometimes bits from a Magnavox CDB650 through a CAL alpha DAC; M3A pre-amp; pair of Dyna MkIV's pushing biwired Vandersteen 2Ce's. The Mk IV's have (for now) the stock driver board w/ upgraded caps and GE 7199's, and will soon have new Svetlana EL34's and Philips ECG 5AR4/GZ34 rectifiers.
I'm really no good at describing how it sounds, so I hope this will suffice. Any thoughts?
Follow Ups:
Greetings,Forget NOS, I just replaced a pair in my L1 with crinoed 6H23N-EB's from The Cable Company. They sound great, even better than the pinch-waist NOS Amperex 6922 that the L1 ate. Thanks
I have a current version AIM 3A, and the tubes that I have run through it are as follows, telefunken, siemmens gold pin, amperex, and edicron. The edicrons were my favorite of the non sovtek tubes. In the end I found that all the other tubes skewed the tonal balance in my system in a manner that was to difficult to live with over time. All of them pushed my system to a point that was too warm. My first concern in a system is to get the tonal balance right. And I belive that AI does that reasonably well in its overall design. And I haven't found the need to replace the sovtek tube. Although I am intruiged by the russian military tube. Another problem I found with the AI when rolling tubes is that the NOS tubes always affected inner detail and transient response negatively. If you roll tubes in the AI, be sure to have some good Sovteks around that you can compare against.
I have owned two Modulus 3As and the best tube I have found by far is the Telefunken E88CC. They are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination though. Another goodie and cheapie is a Valvo ECC88. Amperex and Siemens were hit and miss with my preamp. More often than not they were microphonic and noisy.Oh, and don't forget the Mullard CV2493, another excellent tube in the 3A, but pricey and hard to find as well.
It's been discussed on this board to death that the Modulus 3A eats NOS tubes for breakfast. the 3A drives the tube hard, so most of them don't last for more than a few months at best. As far as I know the Russian 6H23 and the Tungsrum 6DJ8/ECC88 or 6922/E88CC are the only tubes rugged enough to withstand the abuse, besides the Sovteks.
I had the Teles in the preamp for just over a year before I sold it. No problems up until that point.
I'd have to second the praise for Telefunken E88CC's. If you do a search of "Telefunken 6922 or E88CC" here in the archives, you will see it comes up again and again as an outstanding choice. Pricey little buggers indeed! Only available used or NOS. Buy them from a reputible dealer as there are many fakes out there of that particular tube. Read my recent thread on the Telefunken E88CC's that I recently purchased from a dealer in Germany too. These were made by Mullard. I recently swapped out the RCA (Amperex) in my LS-2B with one of these tubes and have now let it burn in with around 70 hours of music going through them. The difference between the Tele/Mullard and the Amperex is profound! The Telefunken is much more warm and lush. Instruments sound more isolated in space rather than blurred. Soundstage width at this point in the burn-in is similar to the RCA, as is depth, but I expect it to get better with some more hours. The dealer I bought mine from also had some used Telefunken E88CC's with the diamond between the pins (the more sought after version - made in West Germany) at around $100 each. You can see his stock here:http://www.Audiotubes.de/ECC88.htm
With a used tube, even though they may test new, there is just no way of knowing how long they are going to last. I'd try to find NOS from a reputible dealer. I do think the dealer I bought mine from is honest. He has excellent extensive feedback (500+) on eBay.
Best,
Mullard 10M master series 6DJ8! According to your description, you are probably using a Mullard tube, not a Telefunken tube. I found the Tele's not that great in my LS-2B Mk II. I did a test last year comparing about 15 different NOS tubes in my LS-2B MkII, these include various Amperex 6DJ8/6922/7308 (white label, orange label, PQ, BB, world logo) Siemens CCa, 6922, 6DJ8, Mullards, Telefunkens, etc. My secocnd favorite tube is an early production Amperex with the "D" getter.
Here is a good cautionary post about buying NOS posted on a different thread here recently:
This HAS been discussed before.The A.I.M. preamp is notorious for "eating" 6922s. Given that fact, the tube to use is the NOS Russian 6H23EB (highest military grade). The Russian NOS sounds BETTER than current Sovtek, while being tough as nails.
AA Sponsor Upscale Audio stocks the Russian NOS.
Eli D.
Similar to a system I heard a couple years ago, and the AI ate a set of 6922 Siemens in a matter of weeks. In a head-to-head comparison, the 6H23p-EB was virtually indistinguishable from the Telefunken, but these were late '60's versions of the 6H23. Besides Upscale, Ken Chait has the newer version at a very good price. I'd stick with the 6H23 due to longevity, and it sounds really good too.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: