Wanted quad 6922 tubes.

CH46E

Looking for some new or NOS quality tubes for my Anthem Pre 2L. Its time to try something better then them oem tubes. Sovteks I think.

Trying to spend less than $150.00

CH46E

Used of course too.

invalid

http://vintagetubeservices.com/

Emlyn

At under or around $40 a tube with low noise for preamp use the choices may be gold pin Electro Harmonix or Gold Lion for something new that costs a bit more. In my experience the EH tubes last a long time. They aren’t the “best” sounding but they are reliable and quiet.

I may need to re-tube my Pre 2L SE in the next couple years. I have tried different NOS tubes in it before and don’t think it’s worth the expense to put really costly tubes in it that end up being microphonic anyway.

invalid

I wouldn't shy away from nos tubes in fear of microphonic tubes, you just have to buy them from the right tube seller. My preamp uses 6sl7 tubes, that are supposed to be highly microphonic tubes also, I've had a pair of kenrad's in it for over 3 years powered up 24/7 and no problems. The tubes I bought came from vintage tube service, he has phono stage grade tubes for low microphonic.

marvda1

these are really great sounding tubes.
https://www.musicdirect.com/tubes/sovtek-6h30pi-tube-super-linear-dual-triode-ea

CH46E

marvda1 wrote: »

these are really great sounding tubes.
https://www.musicdirect.com/tubes/sovtek-6h30pi-tube-super-linear-dual-triode-ea

That 6H30Pi looks like a nice tube. But on Upscale audio its states this is not a replacement for 6922????
"Sovtek 6H30Pi – Upscale Audio" https://upscaleaudio.com/products/russian-6h30pi?variant=21829851653

CH46E

I was looking at these and they are high on my list. But a little pricey.

Matsushita / National PCC88 7dj8

https://upscaleaudio.com/products/matsushita-national-pcc88-7dj8

marvda1

CH46E wrote: »

marvda1 wrote: »

these are really great sounding tubes.
https://www.musicdirect.com/tubes/sovtek-6h30pi-tube-super-linear-dual-triode-ea

That 6H30Pi looks like a nice tube. But on Upscale audio its states this is not a replacement for 6922????
"Sovtek 6H30Pi – Upscale Audio" https://upscaleaudio.com/products/russian-6h30pi?variant=21829851653

ask your manufacturer, works fine in my dac replacing 6dj8's

invalid

I believe the heater current is higher on the 6h30pi, sometimes these work if you transformer can handle it.

mhardy6647

invalid wrote: »

I believe the heater current is higher on the 6h30pi, sometimes these work if you transformer can handle it.

Easy enough to check!





so... yes...much more heater current required for the latter compared to the former (850 mA for the Rooskie twin triode vs. 300 mA for the 12AX7A & kin); and the latter no center tap (i.e., filament must be 6V).

marvda1

@mhardy6647 compare to the 6dj8/6922 not the 12ax7.

mhardy6647

marvda1 wrote: »

@mhardy6647 compare to the 6dj8/6922 not the 12ax7.

whoops! That's embarrassing -- not sure why I did that. sorry!
6922 also has, of course, no center tap on the filament.
6922 filament, however is also 0.3A (300 mA) @ 6V, like the 12AX7 at 6V.



Filament current (power) requirement for four of 'em is going to be an issue unless there's a lot of reserve capacity in the power transformer (i.e., same conclusion).

JayCee

Where do you get the tube specs (source)? Have a PDF or link you'd mind sharing?

CH46E

mhardy6647 wrote: »

marvda1 wrote: »

@mhardy6647 compare to the 6dj8/6922 not the 12ax7.

whoops! That's embarrassing -- not sure why I did that. sorry!
6922 also has, of course, no center tap on the filament.
6922 filament, however is also 0.3A (300 mA) @ 6V, like the 12AX7 at 6V.



Filament current (power) requirement for four of 'em is going to be an issue unless there's a lot of reserve capacity in the power transformer (i.e., same conclusion).

Thanks Mark! I dont know enough to make the best decision.

So after speaking with a guy very familiar with Sonic Frontiers and from what Kevin at Upscale Audio says about the Matsushita 7dj8 tubes I went ahead and placed an order for Platinum grade tubes.

Matsushita / National PCC88 7dj8

https://upscaleaudio.com/products/matsushita-national-pcc88-7dj8

My fingers are crossed. I hope I have one of those "holy crap, hair raising" events.

mhardy6647

JayCee wrote: »

Where do you get the tube specs (source)? Have a PDF or link you'd mind sharing?

Absolutely!

Depends on what I need.
For one stop shopping, especially for weird-ish tubes (e.g., Rooskie tubes), I like http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/tubesearch.php
That's what I used to pull up the right, and the wrong ones above, which I just took screenshots of for this thread.
TDSL is great, although it gets stumped once in a while and doesn't have datasheets for tubes that aren't all that esoteric. TDSL, in fact, didn't have that 6h30p (6H30П) and I had to google to find that New Sensor datasheet.

For more serious perusal, I've downloaded a bunch of manuals from http://www.tubebooks.org/tube_data.htm and https://worldradiohistory.com/ Both are fabulous resources for audio and electronics stuff.

Collect 'em all!

mhardy6647

CH46E wrote: »

mhardy6647 wrote: »

marvda1 wrote: »

@mhardy6647 compare to the 6dj8/6922 not the 12ax7.

whoops! That's embarrassing -- not sure why I did that. sorry!
6922 also has, of course, no center tap on the filament.
6922 filament, however is also 0.3A (300 mA) @ 6V, like the 12AX7 at 6V.



Filament current (power) requirement for four of 'em is going to be an issue unless there's a lot of reserve capacity in the power transformer (i.e., same conclusion).

Thanks Mark! I dont know enough to make the best decision.

So after speaking with a guy very familiar with Sonic Frontiers and from what Kevin at Upscale Audio says about the Matsushita 7dj8 tubes I went ahead and placed an order for Platinum grade tubes.

Matsushita / National PCC88 7dj8

https://upscaleaudio.com/products/matsushita-national-pcc88-7dj8

My fingers are crossed. I hope I have one of those "holy crap, hair raising" events.

They should be good!
You might want to sell a kidney and try a set of 7308s next, though

JayCee

Thanks, Mark. I know you've mentioned references in the past but will now bookmark. Appreciate it.

Chris, I think you'll like the Mat's. I have a set for the BHK and bought a second as backup. Been a while since I've rolled them in, but they have a nice full sound and won't break the bank. I'd actually recommended them, via my Brit purchase site, when you were asking Q's.

Edit....references bookmarked!

marvda1

i prefer the sound of those matsushita/national 7dj8's to the slightly more expensive tungsram 7dj8's.

mhardy6647

I know that many of the Matsushita tubes were made on Mullard equipment. The 7DJ8, I presume, was a heater variant designed for series-string filament (transformerless), "killer" circuits -- probably portable TVs.

I just wanted to mention one other almost, sorta, kinda 6922 variant: the Soviet/Russian 6Н1П (6n1p) twin triode. It is pretty similar to a 6922, but it also requires higher heater current (600 mA vs. 300 mA for the 6922) and has some other slight differences (at least, according to Wiki-p ). Once again, probably no help for @CH46E (and he's got a good solution en route already!) but, having thought of it, I wanted to at least mention the 6n1p.

https://shop.ehx.com/catalog/addimages/6n1p-svetlana.pdf

I do know that a circuit designed for the 6n1p can (usually) take a 6922 as a drop-in substitute. Steve Deckert's "Zen" SE-84 series of amps used the 6n1p as driver, and he explictly stated that 6922 would also work well in the amp. Indeed, thanks to the kindness of Gary Kaufman, I put a nice Bugle Boy in my SE-84B back when I used to use it.

JayCee

CH46E wrote: »

So after speaking with a guy very familiar with Sonic Frontiers and from what Kevin at Upscale Audio says about the Matsushita 7dj8 tubes I went ahead and placed an order for Platinum grade tubes.

Matsushita / National PCC88 7dj8

https://upscaleaudio.com/products/matsushita-national-pcc88-7dj8

My fingers are crossed. I hope I have one of those "holy crap, hair raising" events.

Well.........?

pitdogg2

he's still crapping.....and pasting down his hair...

JayCee

If so, we can skip the obligatory "pictures or it didn't happen" post.

CH46E

I have not had a chance to listen to them yet. I have left the unit on for a few hours hear and there.

Soon.. soon I hope.

CH46E

Are new (NOS) tubes usually bright at first. I found these to be very very bright when paird with the titanium tweeters in my JBL L1s. I usually like brighter top end due to my hearing loss but this was combo ran me out of the room after only 2 songs.

Should they take taper down with more use?

pitdogg2

It takes about 75hrs. Like any other electric type stuff, I turn them on and let them stay on for several days and run some music on low. Of course I've had others like yours that I knew even if I left them on for months I was not going to jive with them.

CH46E

Ok thanks. I'll go turn them back on and let it go at low volume.

Emlyn

I'd give them a couple weeks to settle in before making a judgment. The most common word on them in user reviews seems to be "detailed" in the treble region though.

They could just be revealing the true nature of the tweeters in your speakers compared to the old Sovtek tubes, especially if those tubes are tired out and in need of replacement anyway. I have some Sovtek tubes in my Pre 2L which I've been using off and on for about 3 years now but I'm only using that preamp in a secondary system so the sound quality isn't top of my list. New EH and Gold Lion 6922s are known as bright tubes.

CH46E

Hey Emlyn, detailed for sure. Very detailed. I do like that. But that was overshadowed by thier brightness. They have been cooking all night and day. I'll go give a listen here in a little bit. Last night I only tried a cd and a sacd. Tonight ill try some vinyl and another digital source.

I'm afraid if they don't calm down the results with my JBL 035ti tweeters will be similar with the infinity EMIT tweeter in my RSII. Unfortunately I have my RTA12B torn down for a part out and so I have no soft dome tweeters to try out.

I'm also about to go see a ear doctor about my left ear. Even with moderate volumes I'm getting a lot of crackling. Its really bad and annoying.

JayCee

Hey Chris. I've run the Mat's in my BHK and never thought them bright. Don't have any experience w/the JBL's but I'd think that's part of the factor.

Recently running NOS Mullards and Brimars I've found they took about 175 hrs, give or take, to really sound nice. One tube that's definitely too bright for my taste is Radio Technique/ECC82/6189/12AU7WA NOS from the 60's. Milspec'd version that's described as "clear and smooth" with tight bass. Also found them a bit thin.

Back to your Mat's...I'm surprised that you find them bright. I'm inclined to think it's more speaker related and your ear problem working against you.

CH46E

Thanks for the info John. I'm thinking as others said, let them burn in a bit. I think I'll leave them on for the rest of the weekend and try them Monday night.

Besides, it sounds like my son is in there fighting for his life on Call of Duty anyways. I don't feel like dealing with his eye rolling when I ask him for 20 min in the room. But he is going to have to turn the subwoofers off soon or stop calling in air strikes and throwing grenades.