Hej Johannes
Min var født med mullard. Idag foretrækker jeg mullard rør men Rør er en subjektiv oplevelse så her er en rettesnor
upper midrange screech that current production tubes
are famous for. Here are some VERY GENERAL observations about some of
these vintage tubes:
TELEFUNKEN, SIEMENS, VALVO, LORENZ, and other German made NOS:
These tubes are usually characterized by an impressive open "air" at
the top end. The soundstage is large, even in mono applications these
tubes have a great 3-D image. The midrange is ruler flat, and the bass
is tight and accurate. These tubes have a fine sense of dynamics, and
most are impressively quiet. These are not "warm" tubes, and to some
ears their lack of midrange warmth may be heard as bright. I tend to
think of them as accurate, and their clean, focused sonic image is
astonishing. My personal favorites. For critical phono or microphone
preamp needs, grab the rare Telefunken or Siemens ECC801S before they
are gone! They are absolutely incredible tubes that will never be made
again!
AMPEREX, PHILIPS, MAZDA and other Holland/France/Belgium made NOS:
These tubes are a great balance of a clean, airy top end, nice midrange
warmth, and accurate bass. They are very pleasant, clean, and musical
to listen to in hi-fi applications. Unlike other clean European tubes,
these break-up impressively when overdriven in a guitar amp. The rare
longplate versions are the same, but with even more soundstage space
and detail. The Mazda adds a nice bit of dynamic punch to the sound.
MULLARD, GENALEX, BRIMAR, and other British made NOS:
Like a warm British jacket of the finest tweed, these glorious tubes
have an attractive sweet warmth in their midrange and lower regions.
The top end is silky and pleasant, without being rolled-off. The best
of these tubes retain a fine sense of "air" at the top, and the upper
midrange is smooth and liquid. These tubes reproduce the human voice,
especially female voices, with haunting realism. The rare D-Getters and
Genalex versions have an eye-popping huge soundstage, razor sharp focus
and detail, and an uncolored top end while retaining the warmth of the
lower priced versions.
RCA, RAYTHEON, GE, SYLVANIA, and other USA made NOS:
This group is very diverse. The RCA, Raytheon, and Sylvania blackplates
are among the best here. These are very musical tubes with air and
sparkle at the top end, warmth in the mids, and great bass. The RCA are
drop dead beautiful in guitar amps, even the lower priced greyplate and
longplate versions. They also have a wonderful "phat" gritty sound when
overdriven in these amps. The blackplates and most tubes made for
organs are very quiet. The greyplate GE is an all-around nice-guy tube
to listen to, the blackplate here possibly getting the nod for hi-fi
use. The Sylvania greyplate and military versions are clean and a bit
bright, but the Sylvania 6201 variants are very balanced and pleasant
to listen to for hours. The RCA 6201 and 5965 is more like the Mullard,
with a rich warmth and wide bandwidth. Currently, the USA made tubes
are a nice surprise with their low prices as compared to the European
types.