6922 tube recommendations

1960, 61, 62 Holland Heerlen made Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8's (large halo). Or the pricier 6922.

A killer under the radar tube are the 70's Russian 6N23P(6Н23П) from Novosibirsk (NEVZ) or Voskhad. These rival the Amperex Holland 6922, IMO.

Here's a good example

https://www.ebay.com/itm/398324309588?_skw=6n23p&itmmeta=01M1YH8QQ3GF480YT1T58YZ7TE&hash=item5cbdfa9e54:g:d5QAAeSwGEZqjgyt&itmprp=enc:AQALAAAA4GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCpb3PPQ32JI0Rx1X+/k0LitrdKQ4lVf0TcNTJuf23oGiR81eArxWP6okd/uiMP/IJ2dRJANr7kJDlWYBQQKNVc62TOJb3OaA3AuxeTuiquY/96ngK8J40Yo2ZmBquQFaqVU9s7pX0B0DPQh/3uKMEBxGdBOzcuDUcPfFk6nfI0NVhapBDsB/DNwTsR+SHdXIvvjYu/dMY5NB5532/6Y0gZlRH+7Fhh+59BUDaK19AjOPawqDwuUuZshqQzudF64bYAcOkhzCXWumKlSr9STR/T|tkp:Bk9SR9r7otGPaA

Look for gray or silver shield, single wire pole getter 1970-1975. The later tubes from 1979 on are pretty run of the. mill.
1975 is the holy grail and they are priced that way. I've found 1972, 73, 74 to be 90% of the 1975 (holy grail tube). Cost is a whole lot less.

These are spectacular tubes

H9

pitdogg2 wrote: »

I'm definitely not a Russian tube guy.
I will say that out of all I have tried the Novosibirsk and Voskhads were far better quality. I could be wrong, my understanding is those plants were in charge of making tubes for the defense sector, planes and ICBM's.

You're missing out.
Early Russian tubes are excellent. 60's and 70's to mid 70's is what you need to stick with for signal tubes like the 6N1P, 6N23P, 6N6P. I use all 3 and they sound fantastic and are very robust.

80's, 90's tubes are very average. Like the 80's and 90's American tubes.
H9

Afaik, There is no direct Russian equivalent for the 12au7 or 12ax7. I've tried several 6bq5/el85 russian tubes. My preamp didn't like them one bit.

Your right Ivan, not s direct equivalent for 12au or 12ax tubes. But the 6N23P is very similar to 6dj8. There are excellent equivalent to the 6SN and 6SL7. Again all 50s and 60s tubes. I wouldn't recommend anything after 1980 except the excellent SED Winged C from St. Petersburg EL34 and 6L6 power tubes

6dj8, 6SN7, 6SL7 and 6AQ8 have excellent Russian equivalents. The 1975 6N23P from Reflektor, silver shield, single wire getter post is better than the 6922 or even the Cca or 7308 according to many.

Yeah, I can't bring myself to purchase any Melz 6S*7 equivalent tubes. The gear I use them in doesn't justify the cost. 1961 Foton 6H8C for a 6SN7 is an excellent tube.

Have you considered 7308's? I preferred a 7308 over a 6922 in my Bottelhead Eros phono pre.

Oh my, I haven't been tube shopping for a while! I built the Eros in 2015 and only need one 6922/7308. I think I got the single Amperex 7308 from Carl.

The Eros uses two EF86 tubes (typically used in Neumann U67 microphones) as first gain stage. I would have liked to get some better Telefunken EF806S but they commanded a high price, like ~ $280 each. At the time Tele EF86 were $100 each.

When Norm and I had ModWright gear, Bendix 6900's were the holy grail tubes, around $800 a pair. I did some research and learned MU Engineering purchased Bendix tube division and rebranded existing stock. We got those for $300 a pair until word got out they were essentially rebranded or made with Bendix tooling.