[HAM] Best 12AU7

[Scott Hawthorn]

At 10:53 AM 3/8/2008, goffmac747 at aol.com wrote:
>Ok..what about the 6550's? any difference in these?

It's a whole can o' worms. For instance, my view is that the brand is not 
at all critical, except that build-quality matters. (You don't want them to 
blow up when you first fire 'em up.) I'll bet there are whole legions of 
people here who will swear they can hear the difference between this tube 
and that tube, and I also bet they'll chime in right about......now.

Of course, the gold standard is NOS Tung-Sols (not the new repros), if you 
can afford them. I have also seen testimonials from users of the new repros.
I have had very good results with Svetlanas, and now, I am told, the 
Winged-Cs are good.
Another bit of lore is that NOS G.E.s are good unless they were the ones 
built in Kentucky (they say so on them). I had a pair: one blew up.
I would steer clear of any Chinese tubes because of unreliability.
Avoid *anything* recommended by Austin Pittman. Run, run away fast.