magical NOS tubes

NOS magic thrills maggielurva

i am never one who spends on exotic NOS tubes but that was then and this is now. playing with ARC monoblocks, which requires 20 tubes in total (16 pieces of 6550c power tubes and 4 pieces of 6FQ7 driver tubes) simply forbids me to invest in expensive NOS tubes.

the last week had me scratching my head as to why my system's sound has acquired a slight thinness in the mids. it was not very obvious but it does bother me cos i am ever the perfectionist. suspecting that it is due to the bad electricity, i monitored the situation over the last 5 days. it persisted. bad electricity wouldn't last for more than 2 days. which led me to suspect some of the tubes in my power/pre might be acting up.

my ARC LS25MKII pre uses 2 russian super tubes 6H30 which some say can last up to 10,000 hours and mine have just scratched the 3,000 hours mark. but i am not the kind who believes in statistics or hearsay; i trust my ears more. my ipoh dealer even said none of his customers have ever replaced their 6H30 tubes yet.

6 months ago i bought from my friend, a set of NOS 6H23n-EB which is supposedly compatible to 6H30 and 6922. at RM300 each, they cost me a bomb; it is almost 5 times of sovtek 6H30! i bought them more for future replacement but i have to use it now to test whether the stock sovtek 6H30 have aged.

omigod! the russian NOS 6H23n-EB beats the hell out of the stock sovtek 6H30 even in its fresh state! it is simply fuller, richer and more robust. can you imagine putting another 100 hours to the tubes? this is the BEST sound i have ever acquired since my system stablizes early this year. i am ecstatic.

it has made me a believer in NOS, especially for preamp and driver application.

i was mighty glad because my hearing ability allows me to detect even the slightest degradation in sound, may it be due to electricity or tube ageing or other factors. this is a skill that takes year to acquire. one important lesson i learn is - good tubes, even when not properly burned-in, would sound good from the very start. bad tubes, would sound bad, no matter how many hours your burn them.

remember, if your amp uses current-production sovtek 6H30, give NOS 6H23n-EB a try and you will be in cloud nine.