Radio Corporation Of America - Maximum(?) Respect!

It occurs to me that I have never had a duff sounding RCA tube. And I have tried quite a few - OD3/OA3, ECC81, ECC82, ECC83, 12BH7A, EL84, VT-4-C (211), RCA branded Tung-Sol 6550s D). The only mildy dodgy ones where clear tops - I think ECC82s.

Can't say the same of Mullard (very variable if you ask me), Brimar, Telefunken (their EL84 just sounds plain weird in my guitar amp - really growly - a good change every now and then, but it sounds like nothing else i.e. really odd, and it measures excellently in my old AVO), GEC (their 6550 sucks really badly to my ears - it's imaging is literally all over the place!), Sovtek (KT88 sucked), Sylvania (not the best 12BH7a by a long shot) etc etc etc.

The other one I rate is Tesla Vrsovice, but they suffer from reliability problems in some designs. Amperex is also way up there.

So, English respect award goes to Martin Logan, and RCA.

My opinion only, of course, with the gear I have tried them in.

Anyone feel the same about RCA or any other tube manufacturer? Feel free to disagree with me entirely

User211 said:

Anyone feel the same about RCA or any other tube manufacturer? Feel free to disagree with me entirely

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You're quite full of rubbish, old boy, and you deserve to be horsewhipped. :ROFL:
I've never had a bad experience with an RCA tube. In particular I love their 6SN7s. Nice balance between accuracy and warmth IMO. And their 12BY7As are really great sounding too, with the exception of the J.A.N. Sylvanias which are even better!:rocker:

Yeah, they made some pretty good speakers too.

Tube60 said:

You're quite full of rubbish, old boy, and you deserve to be horsewhipped. :ROFL:
I've never had a bad experience with an RCA tube. In particular I love their 6SN7s. Nice balance between accuracy and warmth IMO. And their 12BY7As are really great sounding too, with the exception of the J.A.N. Sylvanias which are even better!:rocker:

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I too have had good results with RCA 6SN7s (1956). Sylvania 6SN7 GTBs from 1957 are pretty wonderful as well, and through a friend was able to get a pair of what are called Sylvania 'Bad Boys' which are similar to the standard GTBs but look a little different...using them in the preamp to good effect...phenomenal bass.

I agree with the verdict on the 6SN7's too. Got a pair in my BATVK-55SE and they are great!

I'm told they last forever as well....

tonepub said:

I agree with the verdict on the 6SN7's too.

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I've got a bucket full of them! All different vintages, yet they all test within 1% of each other. On top of that, they're all used, and to further muddy the waters, they all sound different, in spite of how close they test (and I have a checker that really tests them.. not just grid emissions...)!

I've got a pair of RCA 807s in my single ended amp right now - Sound good to me but I haven't heard anything to compare them with.
I think they made millions of these so there are many NOS to be had for cheap.