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In Reply to: Re: You need to try some more tubes... posted by Jim McShane on September 17, 2006 at 08:37:47:
Open mind - and ears - is excellent advice. Whether vintage or new-production, that this or that tube will sound good in your system to your ears can't be determined without listening to this or that tube. There're just so many variables. Sometimes big-buck, mythic-proportion tubes sound good in a system, sometimes they don't.In my experience, even when an uber tube does sound outstanding, there will always be a tube of lesser renown that will sound at least as good. And often there're a lot of these more humble tubes that sound as good. After listening to literally dozens of different tubes in dozens of different systems, I've actually found it very rare for an uber tube to top my list of favorites for any given system. Some much-touted and very pricey tubes have never even made it on to a single long list for me.
I finally listened to Chinese tubes, having passed over them thinking that they couldn't be as good as vintage. Now, the Chinese tubes I've used so far are consistently at the top of my favorites short lists, ranking as high or higher in preference for me than any vintage tube. Looking around recently for other tubes I've passed over prejudiciously, I located some. These tubes are among the unloved of a couple of popular tube types. Danged if I don't think that some of these sound outstanding, rocketing to the top of my favorites list for the system I'm listening to now. I didn't find all of these to be great, some were just okay; plenty listenable enough, still, if not great.
...just have to keep the mind and ears open...
- SJ
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Follow Ups
- Re: You need to try some more tubes... - tvr2500m 19:51:58 09/18/06 (0)