VAC amps 6SN7 tube rolling

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Dizzie

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I know Kevin carefully voices all of his equipment but I wonder if the need for affordable and plentiful tubes limits performance. Has anyone swapped 6SN7s in VAC amps for better or worse? I am not fluent in tube history so I would prefer something new and readily available. I refuse to search for a quad of NOS tubes made in the afternoon of the second Tuesday in May, 1952.

I swapped Ray Tubes Reserve 6SN7s into my Linear Tube Audio DAC. The performance improvement was dramatic. But in that case, LTA recommended the tubes and took the worry out of my decision.
 
I own the Statement 452IQ Mono amps and currently am running the Sophia Electric 6SN7’s. I had some NOS Sylvania 6SN7’s that were better for sure by a long shot but they were just too noisy. I haven’t found a good clean set of those .. 8 tubes in all for me so I’m sticking with the Sophia Blues for now. If I can find the Sylvania’s that are noise free though I’ll go there in a heart beat. I did buy the Amplitrex tube tester to try and match tubes before putting them in. I’m finding that even when I buy matched sets of new tubes they are most often not matched within 10% much less 5%. In my Statement Linestage I did finally find a true NOS pair of Bugle Boy 6dj8’s in new condition and that matched both sections in each tube and to each other by less than 5% difference. WOW did those tubes make a difference. I did try and buy a few more pairs but all of the other tubes so far tested nearly end of life not NOS. The Amplitrex has already paid for itself. Good luck!

George
 
gadawg said:
I own the Statement 452IQ Mono amps and currently am running the Sophia Electric 6SN7’s. I had some NOS Sylvania 6SN7’s that were better for sure by a long shot but they were just too noisy. I haven’t found a good clean set of those .. 8 tubes in all for me so I’m sticking with the Sophia Blues for now. If I can find the Sylvania’s that are noise free though I’ll go there in a heart beat. I did buy the Amplitrex tube tester to try and match tubes before putting them in. I’m finding that even when I buy matched sets of new tubes they are most often not matched within 10% much less 5%. In my Statement Linestage I did finally find a true NOS pair of Bugle Boy 6dj8’s in new condition and that matched both sections in each tube and to each other by less than 5% difference. WOW did those tubes make a difference. I did try and buy a few more pairs but all of the other tubes so far tested nearly end of life not NOS. The Amplitrex has already paid for itself. Good luck!

George
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George,

What level Sophia Electric did you buy? There are 5 levels maxing at $230/tube. 😱

Thank you for the information. I think I will pass on Sophia Electric. I don't like their business model with too many different grades and charging $30/tube to upgrade from a 30-day warranty to a one-year warranty. If they do not have faith in their product then I do not have faith either. Grade B is only the top 30%. So what % is a Grade C? (n)
 
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Dizzie said:
George,

What level Sophia Electric did you buy? There are 5 levels maxing at $230/tube. 😱

Thank you for the information. I think I will pass on Sophia Electric. I don't like their business model with too many different grades and charging $30/tube to upgrade from a 30-day warranty to a one-year warranty. If they do not have faith in their product then I do not have faith either. Grade B is only the top 30%. So what % is a Grade C? (n)
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I have no idea about their lower grades .. I bought the top grade with the longest warranty. There are always the Ray Reserve 6SN7's for $242 per tube! :ROFLMAO: So far the 6SN7's have been great and after a year of use all still test as basically new tubes. That said I did try their KT88's and almost all of the 16 tubes were defective out of the box. So .. they are hit and miss but so far I've had good luck with their 6SN7's. They are the closest I've found to the sound of the NOS tubes. Don't get me wrong .. I'm not saying that they are competing with the NOS (nothing I've heard really does) just that of the new production tubes I like these the best so far. I have a Felix Audio headphone amp that uses 2 x 6SN7's that I will listen to tubes in pairs first before deciding to order 8 of them for the big setup.

Good luck!

George
 
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Michaels HiFi said:
I agree!

A good tube tester.....or 12 as I have.....always pay for themselves if you have tube gear.

Most new tube producers consider 10% "matched". I'm not saying I agree.
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When I got my last order of Gold Lion KT88's let just say I had to swap out tubes with the vendor several times to even get within a 10% match. Now I see why tube amp manufacturers charges a premium for getting tubes from them. They go through the hassle for you .. or at least claim they do! :cool:

Cheers!

George
 
gadawg said:
I have no idea about their lower grades .. I bought the top grade with the longest warranty. There are always the Ray Reserve 6SN7's for $242 per tube! :ROFLMAO: So far the 6SN7's have been great and after a year of use all still test as basically new tubes. That said I did try their KT88's and almost all of the 16 tubes were defective out of the box. So .. they are hit and miss but so far I've had good luck with their 6SN7's. They are the closest I've found to the sound of the NOS tubes. Don't get me wrong .. I'm not saying that they are competing with the NOS (nothing I've heard really does) just that of the new production tubes I like these the best so far. I have a Felix Audio headphone amp that uses 2 x 6SN7's that I will listen to tubes in pairs first before deciding to order 8 of them for the big setup.

Good luck!

George
Click to expand...
George,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I now have more confidence in the Sophia Electric 6SN7s. A shame about the KT88s. I understand you can't comment on how they compare to NOS but that works for me because I asked about new production tubes.

FYI, Ray Tubes guarantees their tubes for a year. The warranty also states if one of a pair goes bad they will replace the pair. I really like the Reserve 6SN7s in my Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC but I have only compared them to the standard tube included with the DAC. I had confidence there because LTA was recommending and selling the Reserve tubes.
 
gadawg said:
I own the Statement 452IQ Mono amps and currently am running the Sophia Electric 6SN7’s. I had some NOS Sylvania 6SN7’s that were better for sure by a long shot but they were just too noisy. I haven’t found a good clean set of those .. 8 tubes in all for me so I’m sticking with the Sophia Blues for now. If I can find the Sylvania’s that are noise free though I’ll go there in a heart beat. I did buy the Amplitrex tube tester to try and match tubes before putting them in. I’m finding that even when I buy matched sets of new tubes they are most often not matched within 10% much less 5%. In my Statement Linestage I did finally find a true NOS pair of Bugle Boy 6dj8’s in new condition and that matched both sections in each tube and to each other by less than 5% difference. WOW did those tubes make a difference. I did try and buy a few more pairs but all of the other tubes so far tested nearly end of life not NOS. The Amplitrex has already paid for itself. Good luck!

George
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George how was the sound improved with the SEs compared to the stock tubes in your Statement amps? All VAC amps use the same tubes so I could expect similar results.
 
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