My G*S*G progress

2nd harmonics for the masses

Postby WA4SWJ » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:18 am

Hi Guys,

The 5691 will indeed work in the G*S*G. I have one in mine and it works just fine. For some reason I don't remember paying a silly amount for that tube. Maybe I got it before they were "discovered". Anyway, just thought I'd let you know it works fine. I'm listening to the amp right now.

Regards,
Ed Long
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Postby Ty_Bower » Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:27 am

I managed to pick up a few pairs of the Sovtek monoplate 6B4 tubes for a good price. I haven't had any time to listen to them yet... maybe tonight.

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"It's a different experience; the noise occlusion, crisp, clear sound, and defined powerful bass. Strong bass does not corrupt the higher frequencies, giving a very different overall feel of the sound, one that is, in my opinion, quite unique."
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Postby Ty_Bower » Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:16 pm

WA4SWJ wrote:The 5691 will indeed work in the G*S*G. I have one in mine and it works just fine.

Ed, do you have any impressions regarding how the 5691 sounds in your GSG? I ran mine for a couple weeks, but just switched back to an old round plate smoked glass RCA 6SL7GT. It seems pretty obvious to me that I prefer the 'SL7 over the 5691. Maybe my 5691 is used up and worn out? It just sounds dull and uninspired in comparison.
"It's a different experience; the noise occlusion, crisp, clear sound, and defined powerful bass. Strong bass does not corrupt the higher frequencies, giving a very different overall feel of the sound, one that is, in my opinion, quite unique."
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Postby WA4SWJ » Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:24 am

Hi Ty,

Well, I haven't fired that amp up in a while since I brought it home from the office so I'll have to hook it up and try some tube rolling. From what I remember I don't recall any significant difference in the different input tubes I tried when I first built it. I'll have to do that but I won't be able to try it until this coming weekend. I'll let you know.

FWIW, the only amp that I've noticed a difference in when tube rolling was my diytube ST-35. It sounded ratty when I first built it using a JJ 12AX7 and a JJ 12AU7 until I put in some NOS tubes. Now it's a great amp with a 5751 and 12BH7 in it.

I'll give some more tubes a try in my G*S*G as I mentioned above.

Have a great week!
Ed Long
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I'll second that motion

Postby EWBrown » Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:12 pm

The 5751 and 12BH7 really do bring up the ST35 to a new level of performance, I set up the ST35 with the MQ output iron that way and the improvement from various 12AX7 / 12AU7 combinations, was quite dramatic! [:)

/ed B in NC
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Postby WA4SWJ » Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:48 am

Ty,

As promised, I fired up my G*S*G last night (I'm finally back from travel) and listened to the amp a while with the 5691 installed using a range of different music. Then I swapped in a NOS 6SL7 (RCA). I did indeed notice a fairly significant difference in mostly the upper end. The 5691 didn't sound bad, but the 6SL7 just had more top end. Better treble for sure as well as a little more gain. I turned the volume down to what seemed to be the same loudness. (I know that's subjective.) So, in my extremely limited sample of tube rolling, the 6SL7 did indeed sound better to me. The 6SL7 is staying in there.

Hope this is of value.
Ed Long
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Postby Ty_Bower » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:14 am

WA4SWJ wrote:Hope this is of value.


Thanks for taking the time to give it a try. As long as I didn't put any pre-conceived notions in your head, your test has significant value to me. It confirms my feeling that that 5691 isn't as exciting as the hype promised. Now I don't have to blow the bucks and buy a second one to determine if my first one is a dud.

I recently picked up a cheap pair of short bottle black plate Sylvania JAN CHS 6SL7WGT. I stuck one in last night and it has a really nice sound, maybe even better than the old RCA 6SL7GT. They look something like these guys:
http://www.tubemongerlib.com/gallery2/v ... A.jpg.html
"It's a different experience; the noise occlusion, crisp, clear sound, and defined powerful bass. Strong bass does not corrupt the higher frequencies, giving a very different overall feel of the sound, one that is, in my opinion, quite unique."
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