Comparison of stock 12AX7 vs. JJ ECC83S Tubes

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed May 28, 2008 1:50 pm

Your tubes aren;t broke, the differences in distortion are the whole reason why people like the better tubes.

TrondC · Post by **TrondC** » Thu May 29, 2008 6:42 pm

Tarekith wrote:Your tubes aren;t broke, the differences in distortion are the whole reason why people like the better tubes.

yes but on the demo of the stoc tubes, Mine distorts at a much earlier stage, that's why I was wondering why they may be broke...

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu May 29, 2008 7:53 pm

I see, hard to say, tubes od wear out over time, how old is your unit? Mine's only a few weeks old.

TrondC · Post by **TrondC** » Fri May 30, 2008 6:56 am

Tarekith wrote:I see, hard to say, tubes od wear out over time, how old is your unit? Mine's only a few weeks old.

that could be a valid point, as I've had mine for some 4 years soon, but the distortion was there when I got it too. I bought mine used, so that's why maybe, I remember e-mailing the seller telling him that the tubes distort, but he replied "that's what the tubes do man.." , so I've just kept the tubes all the way down, always. (ESX, not EMX btw)

will definately consider getting new tubes if the difference is audiable

The Puppeteer · Post by **The Puppeteer** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:51 pm

The specific spot where the tubes distorts depends on many things.

1) The tubes themselves. How old are they, how hard have they been driven, and what type of tubes.
2) The amount of gain being applied to them and the signal. The amount of gain is controlled by the gain knob, AND by the calibration settings during the diagnostics mode.

As far as I can make out, the diagnostics mode calibration controls the range of voltages applied to the tubes between the lowest and highest setting on the control. I'm not 100% sure exactly how it works, but depending on the value that you calibrate at, the distortion seems to kick in a different places.

anselmi · Post by **anselmi** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:02 pm

I found this on tubedepot...really expensive...wonder how the EMX could sound on this

http://www.tubedepot.com/nos-12ax7-telesp.html

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:08 pm

That's crazy expensive!

Willie K · Post by **Willie K** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:50 am

I think that the difference in sound between these and the JJ's ECC83 S is not as big as the almost $140 in price...