Vali 2+ Tube Rolling (Measurements)

The 6H1N does not need an adapter for the Vali 2 or Vali 2+. Plug and play. Note, it does have higher heater current than the 6DJ8/6922, but it it is safe for Vali 2.

 

The guy has just sent me a wrong tube.
My kyrillic is a bit rusty, but in daylight it turns out to be 6Ж2П which is a 7-pin pentode.

 

I found some ecc84 from Mullard real cheap, so I decided to join the fray. While I wait for the adapters to arrive, can I put these in a ZDT Jr. from Eddie Current? It takes ecc89 as a sub, and I'm reading that is the same pin out and equivalent tube to ecc84, can someone confirm this that has done it and still has their amplifier?

 

Yes, the ECC89 and ECC89 have the same pinout and are mostly compatible. I am not sure how the other parameters vary, but I really liked the ECC84 in the ZDT Jr. and based on that is what led me to see if I could try it in Vali 2. I even asked Ruslan about it and he said that yes, you can put in ECC84 in place of the ECC89's.

Side note, I did try ECC89's (with the adapter of course) in the Vali 2 and Vali 2+ and did not like it as much. It had much more bloated bass and not very refined on the top end. Just from memory.

 

Tubes came in end of last week; adapter came today. I tried 2 of them just now, played a couple very spare tracks to be able to discern any noise. Elex on high gain. (more on this below)
1st one seems very slightly microphonic - I can here just a little bit of a bell sound regardless of volume position if I'm moving around a little. If I tap on the tube, it's like a single louder ring. If I get settled, it's gone completely. 2nd one makes no noise at all. It's been a week since I listened to headphones so can't compare to stock in terms of how they sound, but seemed very good.
It seems like they have a lower output than stock tube - had to turn the volume knob up roughly from 10:00 to 12:00 to get what I remembered as same volume with stock tube. I use lo gain for Elex with stock tube, but high gain is the tougher test, yeah?
I'll try to get through all 16 this weekend.

 

Went through all 16 tubes - 2 with hum, 1 with pretty strong ringing
13 good ones, so landed cost $6/each. I'm gonna keep 3, will sell the other 10
Looks like I should be able to ship to CONUS for $5 w/USPS
I will post a For Sale Ad this coming week.
@Merrick @jexby PM me to confirm you still want a pair at $17 shipped

 

My take on the differences between Vali 2+ stock tube and the RFT ECC84
laptop/Spotify > Eitr > ModiMB V2 > Vali 2+ > HD6XX & Elex

The most apparent difference to me is ECC84 sounds quicker or livelier. HD6XX sounds kinda sleepy compared to Elex on any amp I've tried; ECC84 moves it a little closer. On any kind of music I played, I preferred the ECC84 w/HD6XX. With Elex, though, I came across some tracks that really didn't want that extra liveliness. An example is 'What I Like About You' by the Romantics. I always heard this as a pretty aggressive recording, hand claps and some of the percussion. It already sounds edgy for me with Elex on stock Vali 2+, and ECC84 is that little bit more annoying.

 

Your assessment is spot on. There is a leading edge to ECC84 and good for sleepier headphones like HD6xx/650 and Timeless. However, with edgier headphones or IEMs that already have a good leading edge, I prefer the Russian 6H1N’s for a bit of bloom and smoothness.

 

FS posted