preamp tube brand

Synergy/MTS Forum

Help Support Synergy/MTS Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
ARS..they are re-branded Chinese tubes by the looks of it.

v1 looks like a JJ ECC83 and the other maybe a 12axc9
 
withmittens said:
......although half of all tubes may be bad

Hahaha, lol.

Honestly that's the point of the brands though.....they sort through the crap and test/burn them in.

I bought some Sino Power Tubes direct, sounded fantastic....but 2/4 are dead after less than 3 months (first one failed within a week and it's warranty replacement failed within a month.)
 
I have a bunch of tube testers, and I went through a stint of checking every tube I could get my hands on. I found the Chinese tubes incredibly (surprisingly) consistent. Rarely a bad one. I don't really like their tone. It's "OK". It's not bad tone, its just mediocre. So considering their reliability, if I were building amps, those are the tubes I'd use too.

So withmittens usually half of the Chinese tubes aren't bad. Russian tubes? yeah half of those are bad LoL ...and depending on where they came from, maybe even more than half.

Nobody asked, but of all the tubes Ive used I think these are the best bang for your buck...

http://www.thetubestore.com/Tubes/Preferred-Series
 
They are. You could get the same tubes for less money, but you'd have to buy 3 sets to find the good ones. They send you the good ones on the 1st go. sooo it is what it is so to speak.

Usually I say "don't pay upcharges" (see my sig) but this... its kind of like an upcharge, but in this case you actually get the good tubes... usually upcharges are total BS and they count on the fact that you cant check the lame assed **** they are selling you.

When you buy a set of matched 6L6's of these you GET a matched set of BADASS 6L6's.
 
Is anyone finding that changing the preamp tubes in a Module has a significant impact on the tone or is it negligible at best?
 
JKD said:
ARS..they are re-branded Chinese tubes by the looks of it.

v1 looks like a JJ ECC83 and the other maybe a 12axc9

They’re made in China to the ARS standards. They’ve been the most popular tubes in the Los Angeles scene for decades and they’re standard in amps built by Friedman, Voodoo Amps and many others.

They’re the only preamp tubes I use.
 
Mike P said:
They’re made in China to the ARS standards. They’ve been the most popular tubes in the Los Angeles scene for decades and they’re standard in amps built by Friedman, Voodoo Amps and many others.

They’re the only preamp tubes I use.

Interesting. I admit for many years I engaged in tube snobbery, and immediately replaced any Chinese tube in any gear I bought with at the very least a JJ, if not a nice vintage Tungsram or EI from my stash. What I've found recently is that a lot of the MTS gear actually sounds more defined with the ARS tubes than it does with the "quality" stuff. I've adjusted my thinking accordingly...!
 
Top