A nice pre amp required

I should have twigged ?
Do Mullards sound better than Sovteks then ? I'm going by the price.
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AlineX

 

Depends on the circuitry. Sovteks are usually the 'pits'. Mullards have a tonally warmer sound, usually.

 

Im learning as I live, with tube rolling.

Recently I replaced my no-brand chinese valves in my pre-amp for military specification Philips.

There was a rise in volume and depth and clarity of sound.

However, the tubes are also microphonic, so you get a 'ping' whever you touch the volume control or rap the top of the pre. They pick up noise very easily.

Starting over, I should have bought valves which had been tested for low microphony, whatever the type.

When buying vintage valves like mullards and philips, often these tests and others like them arent carried out, so in my case a sovtek, chinese or other valve that measured very low on microphony and well in other areas may have provided a better result....just as of course a vintage valve that had been tested may be better.

Perhaps its like buying wine - a vintage bottle may be superb, or perhaps its become corked, and the results will be very poor. A mass market cheap bottle of wine may be excellent, or may be very poor, consistancy is the problem with both!

In the future I will be more careful!

 

The various valve types do have different sonic characteristics as you've described but there are also significant differences in circuit topology and implementation. For example, Border Patrol use their trademark separate power supplies and smoothing and this distinguishes the sound of their 300Bs from others.

There are, apparently, many different ways to skin the glass cat.

 

I didnt know that . I certainly have had problems with new valves as well as NOS. Quality doesnt necessarily come with age I've found.

IMO I dont think its as black and white as that. Take Electro Harmonix valves, which are new and great, or better still the mother of 300B's Western Electric - still in production, and still one of the best 300B's money can buy. My power amp is using TJ Mesh-plate 300B's (new) and again, they sound fantastic..

Again, its a mix of construction quality and quality control itself. I'd rather have a 5 quid Sovtek thats been measured and shown to perform flawlessly in all tests than a NOS of unknown and unmeasured performance - thats an expensive stab in the dark. All IMHO of course.

Some interesting points on tube testing:
http://www.diyhifisupply.com/diyhs_trace.htm

 

With NOS I have found that the trick is to obtain feedback on the valve thats of interest, rather like eBay feedback on sellers. This then gives a measure of confidence in buying the valve and enjoying.