Totally Tubular: The Tube Thread

So the NOS 6550. I had 4 fail…

They sent me out replacements for the first two but in the end they just took them all back and gave me a full refund. So fair play to TAD but sadly they didn’t work out even though they sounded fantastic before each inevitably failed!

Didn’t buy new tubes. Had a quartet to new KT88 in the drawer that I’ll just use for the next two years and then look at how the tube supply situation is.
 
After many years of tube rolling, mostly with NOS, I actually have a 100% new production tube configuration that I am really enjoying. This happened quite by accident. I had a quad of NOS EL34s (Sino EL34As) from Nesstone that sounded really nice but I was looking for something a little different. I bought a quad of TAD EL34 STRs from Stewmac for $150, which given what prices had been, was pretty cheap. They've burned-in very nicely. I had several different preamp tubes NOS 12AT7s and 12AX7s that were pretty good but I was having some noise issues. In order to completely isolate the problem, I bought new production matched and balanced pairs of Gold Lion 12AX7/B759 and 12AT7/B739 preamp tubes from Uncle Kevin over at Upscale Audio. Well, the noise went away and to my surprise, it sounds so good that I actually stopped rolling tubes (for now).
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TL:DR - what are some some modern speakers (say post 1990) that are good with old vintage tube amps? I know Klipsch, but damn the used market for those are pricey. I just got a new Low watt fisher amp and I am thinking about an office system and its a small room. Just kicking around some ideas and I know this group will pull through with some good suggestions for me. After getting bitten by some vintage bugs, I have come to realize after vintage up front price + repair, it would be MUCH more cost effective to consider some modern(ish) equipment that will blend with my tube amp. I am posting this in the vintage section, too. TIA team!
 
Satchmo2go said:
TL:DR - what are some some modern speakers (say post 1990) that are good with old vintage tube amps? I know Klipsch, but damn the used market for those are pricey. I just got a new Low watt fisher amp and I am thinking about an office system and its a small room. Just kicking around some ideas and I know this group will pull through with some good suggestions for me. After getting bitten by some vintage bugs, I have come to realize after vintage up front price + repair, it would be MUCH more cost effective to consider some modern(ish) equipment that will blend with my tube amp. I am posting this in the vintage section, too. TIA team!
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I have a fridge magnet that has your Confucius quote on it. Love it.

As for the speakers, the newer Klipsch KD and R series bookshelves aren’t Uber expensive and can easily be driven by a low watt tube amp I would think.
 
I use Tekton speakers with a 2.3 watt amp, Zu is another high efficiency modern speaker.

As for Klipsch, they are very efficient but their sound isn’t for everyone. For those sensitive to highs they may not be the best choice.
 
Slimwhit33 said:
I have a fridge magnet that has your Confucius quote on it. Love it.

As for the speakers, the newer Klipsch KD and R series bookshelves aren’t Uber expensive and can easily be driven by a low watt tube amp I would think.
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Lol, I had an ex girlfriend who had that magnet...that's where it came from...shh...don't repeat that. I have a local lead on some RB5 II and I think that might be my sweet spot. Asking $300. If I can get those to $200, I might just bite. I had RB5's about 15 years ago but ran them with solid state and then fell in love with the Danish speaker sound. Now tubes are in my life and this might be a great "new" Klipsch experiment.
 
Satchmo2go said:
Lol, I had an ex girlfriend who had that magnet...that's where it came from...shh...don't repeat that. I have a local lead on some RB5 II and I think that might be my sweet spot. Asking $300. If I can get those to $200, I might just bite. I had RB5's about 15 years ago but ran them with solid state and then fell in love with the Danish speaker sound. Now tubes are in my life and this might be a great "new" Klipsch experiment.
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Could work for you?
 
Been on a bit of a bizarre journey between getting my new cart and Darlingtons situated (kind of a less than ideal back and forth there but a different story).

Yesterday I was playing a record and the second song in the sound goes out - come to see that I blew a tube, great… I had an older set of 6550s still kicking so tested those out. I still wanted to keep with KT88s so ended up ordering a new set of Mullards this morning. Coming from the Gold Lions, which lasted nearly 3 years so had a good go with them.

Mainly hoping this is the last thing I touch for some time. I was thinking about moving out of tubes and back into solid state but saving that for a couple more years I think. Excited to hear how the Mullards serve me though.
 
After having the A21+ in house for a while now, I made the move to get a dedicated preamp to pair with it as I’ve been using my Luxman integrated which to me wasn’t the best use for it.

Settled on an EVO 300. Will run with stock tubes for a while. Should arrive early next week. I’m hoping that outside of tubes this will end the hardware buying..

We shall see.
 
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Slimwhit33 said:
She has arrived. View attachment 182624
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Just snagged a couple NOS 5ar4 rectifiers on eBay for the price of one from Upscale Audio. Here's hoping they don't explode on me.

Branded GE, but they were manufactured in Japan by Matsushima using the same tooling as contemporary Mullards.
 
Slimwhit33 said:
After having the A21+ in house for a while now, I made the move to get a dedicated preamp to pair with it as I’ve been using my Luxman integrated which to me wasn’t the best use for it.

Settled on an EVO 300. Will run with stock tubes for a while. Should arrive early next week. I’m hoping that outside of tubes this will end the hardware buying..

We shall see.
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What was not working about using the Luxman as a preamp, or did you just want to try tubes?
 
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