Tube rolling for my MC 2301

[Scroobius]

It could be Nobel or Noble or even Nobble but I hope not the latter 

P

[juanpmar]

Hey Praphan,

Although I don´t use tubes anymore I have some experience with the KT88. I used them in my previous Supratek Mondeuse amps http://www.supratek.biz/mondeuse.php

I tried several KT88 like the Electro Harmonix, which came as standard with the amps, this tube was the more dynamic of all but also was a little brilliant for my taste. I tried also the GE 6550 (General Electric) (NOS), they make a clean sound but with less body than the other tubes. At the end I got the KT88 Gold Lion replica.They sounded really well, better than the other ones and have an acceptable price. The Gold Lion were smoother and easy to listen. Whatever the tube you choose try them with different kinds of the other tubes in your amp to get the final sound that better suits your taste.

Best regards,
Juan

[praphan]

Juan hi,

Thank you for your insight on Genalex Gold Lion reissue. Sweet and warm is what I am looking for. May be I will try Gold Lion to see how they go first. Someone on AA forum said Shuguang black treasure is a ripoff , some kind of marketing scam.

I google Supratek. They are hand made with good review. Just for curiosity, why do you switch to SS ? I have McIntosh SS too but tube gears give me more musical involvement.

Best regards,
Praphan

[juanpmar]

Juan hi,... Just for curiosity, why do you switch to SS ? I have McIntosh SS too but tube gears give me more musical involvement.

Best regards,
Praphan

Hi Praphan,

I´ve been using tubes for more than 20 years, time enough to realize that rolling tubes is expensive and that you never get satisfied, why? because you are always thinking on other tubes to improve/change the sound. That´s the reason I took the route of SS, of course it isn´t perfect either but at least it is cheaper and there is less parts in the system to change/combine. With the amount of parameters we use now with XXHighEnd to think also on adding combinations with different tubes made me lazy to say the least. Of course if you are a quiet man you can stay with the same tubes all the time but I´m not that kind of guy, I like to play a bit once in a while changing one thing here or there. Once I began with the computer music (XXHighEnd), I realized that I have enough parameters to play with to kill the audiophile anxiety. Some of those parameters make similar effects as changing tubes, but again, a lot cheaper. So, I can play enough with XXHighEnd to get me entertained and, what´s most important, to improve the sound with those changes, something that evidently is possible.

After many different kinds of amplifiers over the years, tubes and ss, I ended up with the Spectron mono blocks. They are digital amps, I know that many people are sceptic with this kind of amplification, what I can say is that they make me very happy, they are smooth, dynamic and produce a very dimensional and clean sound, in my humble opinion they are fantastic amplifiers and the most true to the music amps I ever had.

Of course I had great times with tubes and I´m sure you too...Enjoy it!

Best regards,
Juan