OTLs, tube rolling, and other glowing delights

Dont know if this could be of interest .Got this from Woo awhile back

 

any guides on tube rolling?

 

some random Chinese hybrid amp. Sounds better than the FiiO X3's headphone out and has a lot more power so... It's using 6922 tubes if I remember correctly.

 

Recently talked about a cheap tube that i used as driver in the WA22 the 6BK7 received comfirmation that it is plug & play in the WA22 but needs 9 pin to 9pin adapters for use in the WA6 or 6BK7 to 6DE7 adapters that Woo DOES NOT MAKE by the way .After a quick search i dont see those adapters on Ebay either .

 

The E88CC/6922 and E188CC/7308 are very nice tubes. It would be helpful if you could take a look and tell us which ones you have. Tubes manufactured in Philip's Heerlen, Suresnes and New York factories seem to be very popular with the Lyr crowd. Personally, my favorites are Voskhod and Reflector 6N23P, the Russian version of the 6922, manufactured in the mid 1970's. Another interesting tube to try is the ECC804, but since I have no experience with your amp, I have no idea how it might sound.

 

I stop by every day and try to contribute when I can.

 

My favourite tubes for my Lyr 2 are the Amperex Orange Globe. The good Reflektors are too expensive?

 

Favorite drivers in my WA2 are the Miniwatt /Dario E188CC /7308 very nice top end thats with 5998 as power tubes and RFT EZ81 rectifiers .

 

Fortunately, my Glenn uses only one driver and I picked up one of rb2013's HG 1975 Refectors directly from him at a good price. Evidently it was a bit too microphonic in a Lyr, but it's perfectly fine in my amp. And if one is patient, 1975 Voskhods can often be found on eBay fairly inexpensively.

 

These Miniwatt Darios were manufactured in Suresnes, France. Notice the factory code "F".

 

I did look on ebay before and eventually gave up. Anyway, I don't use my Lyr 2 as much recently. My Rok and PIBE take turn. When my Glenn OTL is built, perhaps it will take the limelight!

 

Not sure if this fits the thread's theme, but since people seem to know much more about tubes in here, does anyone know if there's any good tube upgrade for Lyr2 ? To be more precise, something which gives them a warm signature. I'd really like to know about their upgrade potential for the price.

 

Got my tubes today a couple balloon shape 280 lovely i mean nice lol along with my #80 happy to say that they all work . Happy Happy !!!!

 

Since Philips manufactured these tubes (6DJ8/ECC88-types) primarily in four factories in Europe: Blackburn, Britain; Heerlen, Holland; Suresnes, France and Hamburg, Germany, I find it useful to imagine a geographical sound continuum, running west to east, across Europe. On the west side of the continuum, the Blackburn sound is warm and wet, and on the east side, the Hamburg sound is cool and dry. In between, the Heerlen sound is still warm and wet, but less so than the Blackburn sound. The Heerlen sound is often described a having a lush midrange. And the Suresnes sound is similar to the Heerlen, but the highs are a bit more pronounced.

Thus, Blackburn tubes have the most warmth, and then Heerlen.

 

Did you ever try the 1975 6N23p reflektors?

 

@gibosi man, I wish people would use such great analogies on head-fi, seriously, it would make things so much easier to understand for people who want to learn more about tube gear. I'm definitely keeping that in mind, can't go for a high budget OTL so it might just be the only good match with the Lyr2 for a warmer sound. Thank you very much !

 

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I have several pairs from the 70's but not 1975 not willing to pay the big bucks for probably subtle differences but like i said i did not try them. Will have to put them back in the rotation at some point its been awhile. So mamy tubes to roll and so little time lol. and im retired go figure .

 

Yes, I think it is a very useful analogy. And to give credit where credit is due, I believe this notion of a "sound continuum" was first coined by "Audiofanboy," a fellow who used to post regularly on head-fi's Little Dot tube rolling forum. When he first proposed it, I thought it yes, it really seems to fit. It even seems to hold true for tubes manufactured by European companies that were not part of the Philip's fold, such as Siemens, Telefunken, Lorenz and Tesla, all of which are relatively cool and dry and also from the eastern side of the continuum.

There is one Philips factory I neglected to mention above, one that doesn't fit into this European geographic continuum: Long Island, New York. Philips manufactured 6922 and 7308 there, but not the 6DJ8. And if I had to try to fit the sound of these tubes into this continuum, I would say that they fall somewhere between the Blackburn and Heerlen sound. Not as warm as the Blackburn, but not as lush as the Heerlen.

 

I have some 6GU7 will give them another listen in the WA2 ,there plug&play

 

I have a Burson Conductor 4wpc and very transparent i like this amp with classical mostly upgraded a few parts in it, the U.S.B module and i had put in a Khozmo 48 step attenuator dont listen much to it but i use its DAC for a couple amps