best 6sn7 for bass?
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jaymanaa
RIP 1961-2018
That's a tough question, but my all time favorite 6SN7 is the Silvy with the getter flash around the base. They are what I would call a very "musical" and well balanced tube. The Tungsol brown base with shiny black squarish plates are good too, as well as the round flat black plated RCAs. I tend to stay away from 6SN7s and 6SL7s that have flat plates similar too but larger than the 12AX7. They can be very detailed and dynamic, but can also cause some fatigue with my ears.
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
gogofast
Addicted Member
jay, what do you think about those red base variants? i'm thinking about rolling some 6sn7 and 6sl7's.
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xxhanhxx
Active Member
I just tried a pair of RCA black plates and Sylvanias. The RCA's were noticeably more bassy, thought the Sylvanias had a sweeter mid, though more forward with my setup. I originally wanted to try the 5692 red base, but it was not available on BT at the time. I think there's an NOS pair listed now.
MickeySmile
Well-Known Member
Try the sylvania "BAD BOY". The bass is totally sonic.
SET12
Super Member
Wow, I have heard many 6SN7's and have tens and tens of them to many to count.
I wish they would bowl me over but they never have.
I have found nearly all 6SN7's to be to micro-phonic in line stages but not really heard in power amplifiers.
I have also listened to the legendary RCA Reds and was not the least impressed and those babies are pricy.
For me I would use a socket plate adapter from bottlehead and fit a 12BH7 9 pin in a 6SN7's position in a heart beat!
Replacing 12AU7's with 12BH7's is a no brainier for me as well.
YMMV depending on operating conditions for any of the above tubes. But the 12BH7 has sung for friends of mine in spades.
Recently an AKer that has just built a 45 mono-blocks that I designed changed his operating conditions in his 12BH7 and the performance of it went through the roof, he was running at 6mA/plate and is now running it at 15mA/plate and is just ecstatic by its smoothness, body and harmonic presentation.
His is optimized with LED biasing with a Muse cathode AC bypass cap and an Anode choke capacitor couple to a Silk grid choke on his 45, the Silk grid choke BTW has a center tap to double the 12BH7's gain which drives his 45's with great authority and musicalness.
SET12
jaymanaa
RIP 1961-2018
They can be really good or really bad. The good; nice very well balanced and VERY detailed tube, the bad; if you get the wrong one they can be horribly microphonic. I have a pair of NOS 6SL7s that I've talked about here before that are so microphonic that if I use them in my single ended 6CA7 jobber, you can shout really loud right at the tube, and here it in the speaker. Not like you can understand words, but you can get noise out of the speaker. These are NOS tubes that I know the history on. Two big fat tight fitting o-rings makes them useable, but you can still tap them with a pencil eraser and hear it.:thumbsdn: I've also had one 6SN7 pull that is horribly microphonic. Just my experience, YMMV.
idadude
Super Member
I heartily second the black glass Ken-Rad
As gearhound and Skylab pointed out, Ken-Rad definitely wins in the bass category. Those old black glass Kentucky Radio tubes put out more bass than any other 6SN7 & variants did in several of my preamps that I'd owned over the years.
Larry D.
As gearhound and Skylab pointed out, Ken-Rad definitely wins in the bass category. Those old black glass Kentucky Radio tubes put out more bass than any other 6SN7 & variants did in several of my preamps that I'd owned over the years.
Larry D.
