Plz, suggest me linear AX7s/ 83s

[solitaire]

Are Mullards the only truely linear valves available new today? As you know these have a hefty price tag and I can't be expected to pay $22 each for them.

Other types my retailer sells are JJs (too agressive), TS (plenty of highs and lows), EHs (a bit too spongy), Sovteks (far too bright), chinese [labeled as: no-name (black and clear), Ruby and TAD]

Cheers!

[donnyjaguar]

Solitair, you've been reading too many magazines and not enough textbooks.

All 12AX7A tubes have the same conduction curve. If they didn't, well they wouldn't be 12AX7A tubes. Don't put too much faith in the verbiage of tube vendors whom rely entirely on this type of marketing.

[Blue Strat]

LOL. What Donny said. Linear? ;)

Who's charging $22? I don't know of a US dealer who can get away with that.

BTW, if it's the only 12AX7 you like why wouldn't you pay the going rate for it? Are you special? :D

[rockon1]

Telefunken smooth plates. They are gonna cost ya more than 22$ most probably. Bob

[Blue Strat]

Telefunken smooth plates. They are gonna cost ya more than 22$ most probably. Bob

Somehow I think anything NOS is gonna be outside of his budget;) Or maybe he'll email me and say "I can't be expected to pay X for Y". ROFL!

[pula58]

tubes are not linear, either are transistors. They are fundamentally non-linear, look at the I/V curves. A resistor is probably the most linear thing, but even it has (depending on type and composition) non-linearities too!

[solitaire]

Solitair, you've been reading too many magazines and not enough textbooks.

All 12AX7A tubes have the same conduction curve. If they didn't, well they wouldn't be 12AX7A tubes. Don't put too much faith in the verbiage of tube vendors whom rely entirely on this type of marketing.
I get what you're saying and everything equal what you're saying would be true. Valves are made to specs but as with cheese, beer, whisky... every brand has its own flavour or signature.

As for me, I guess it dates back to day I did the misstake of putting Sovtek LPSs in my Marshall head. Those weren't even 7025s but they were terribly bright compared to those original grayplate chinese with the Marshall logo.

Now I'm trying to somehow make those strong and wide pickups work in my rig. This means I will have to suppress as much trebles and bass as I possibly can, whilst lowering the headroom for a softer feel. And then I'm only using cryo treated valves, hence the sometimes higher price - but on the plus side they sound better and last much longer.

[Blue Strat]

Cryo: Speaking of marketing hype;)

[solitaire]

tubes are not linear, either are transistors. They are fundamentally non-linear, look at the I/V curves. A resistor is probably the most linear thing, but even it has (depending on type and composition) non-linearities too!
Yes, you're right. A more fair description on what I'm after would be 'balanced', a word easily misstaken for having to do with matching.

[solitaire]

Cryo: Speaking of marketing hype;)Oh, this is not just a hype, mate. A common belief among those who haven't A/B:ed these to stock though.

[Blue Strat]

Oh, this is not just a hype, mate. A common belief among those who haven't A/B:ed these to stock though.

Did you do a blind A/B test with the SAME tube before and after cryo?

I thought not;)

[rockon1]

Yes, you're right. A more fair description on what I'm after would be 'balanced', a word easily misstaken for having to do with matching.

Thats what I hear in the tele. Very uncolored,balanced sound i not a bit "stiff" sounding. Not my thing though. Bob

[Kelly]

$22 is hefty? You get what you pay for. Two of the Chinese tubes just went bad in my VHT. They're about $10 apiece, but only two years old. I replaced them with a RCA and an Amperex, each of which is over 30 years old. They may last another 30. I'd rather pay now for a superior tube that I probably won't have to worry about for many, many years than have to worry about $10 tubes dying on me.

[mbetter]

Oh, this is not just a hype, mate. A common belief among those who haven't A/B:ed these to stock though.


That cryo stuff for tubes is BS of the highest order. Even if I concede that there is a difference between cryo'd and non-cryo'd tubes (which I emphatically do not), you'd get more bang for your buck putting the difference into good NOS tubes instead.

Personally, instead of looking for broad generalizations about different brands of tubes, I'd buy a bag full of random used tubes and start swapping and A/B'ing.

[rockon1]

Im a skeptic by nature. How can you tell if a tube has actually been cryo'd? I could print up some labels and stick them on boxes all day long. lol! Bob

[solitaire]

Im a skeptic by nature. How can you tell if a tube has actually been cryo'd? I could print up some labels and stick them on boxes all day long. lol! Bob
Just as with springs and strings you cant tell by the look of them if they were treated or not. With strings and springs you will notice the increased stiffness. I suppose if one would sacrifice a valve one could try and bend a pin of a treated one and an untreated one of the same make and model.

My source is very serious about his business and I'd doubt he'd venture his reputation on not deliver what he claims. There's a conscise description of the process on his homepage, so most likely it is what it says on the box.

Obviously the clearest give-away is the sound.

[solitaire]

That cryo stuff for tubes is BS of the highest order. Even if I concede that there is a difference between cryo'd and non-cryo'd tubes (which I emphatically do not), you'd get more bang for your buck putting the difference into good NOS tubes instead.

Personally, instead of looking for broad generalizations about different brands of tubes, I'd buy a bag full of random used tubes and start swapping and A/B'ing.
Yes indeed there are. At another forum one guy got a cryo NOS Mullard that "squeeled like a pig" according to him. My source hasn't sent me one valve I had any objection to or otherwise didn't feel met my expectations.

I wish I could afford that. The issue isn't really the price per valve, but the number of valves necessary for building a stash I can just try different valves from at different positions. In all there are 14 pre-amps active using two modules. Ideal would have been one round of EH, one of TS, Mullard, at least one kind of a chinese valve.

[Reason why it counts up to fourteen valves is I'm running one modular rack-preamp (1 common input, 2 valves per module, 1 buffer and 1 summing valve) and two power-amps (50/ 50: 1 input and 2 phase dividers; 9100: 2 inputs and 2 phase inverters). Suppose each valve is somewhere between $10 - 15 = 140 - 210 per round]

[donnyjaguar]

Cryogenic tube treatment? :jo

Whats that old adage? A fool and his money are a friend of mine? Yeah, something like that!

[solitaire]

Cryogenic tube treatment? :jo

Whats that old adage? A fool and his money are a friend of mine? Yeah, something like that!
That's the word for it, my man!

The fool being who? The child saying "I don't want this food" not having tried the least bit of it?; or if he would, having his mind predetermined while doing so?

Wisdom comes from knowledge, knowledge comes from learning, learning comes from experience and experience comes from trying.

[Blue Strat]

...and A/B testing OF THE SAME TUBE which is impossible to do with Cryo valves;)