Hello, i have both esx-1 and emx-1 electribes,
i am trying to find out if changing tubes will improve the sound quality?
if the answer is yes, is yes wich type of tubes should i buy and where can i get them?
thanks.
tubes
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Yeah, change your factory stock tubes. It'll make a difference. My style on the EMX is mainly trance music with some dnb and ambient. Techno from time to time. At the moment, I'm in a band and I'm trying to merge trance successfully with rock <--- a very hard thing to do.
I just changed my stock tubes today, and for me, it made a big difference. If you go to your local guitar store, they should have tubes. Buy them locally, it's cheaper (no shipping charges).. unless your local stores don't have the tubes you're looking for, then buy it online. The tech guy at my local guitar store knew about the EMX, so that was nice. He recommended the JJ Electronic ECC803S tubes because they are very versatile. You can get high gains, a lot of drive (that nice crunchy distortion), but still retain a lot of the details.
I bought two of these for $29 US dollars. I took out the old EH 12AX7 tubes, placed in the JJ ECC803S, and I am GLAD I did this. The ECC803S definitely produced a way cleaner sound, I could hear little details in the songs I never caught before (the EH 12AX7 were kind of foggy and muddy in my opinion) and the ECC803S distortion/crunch was pretty detailed.
The new ECC803S tubes gave an overall cleaner, crisper, more crystal-like sound, but at the same time the tubes allowed some very mean high gains and distortions. Best of both worlds -- a gentleman and a street brawler at the same time. Kind of like James Bond. He wears a tux, but he's also deadly. That can explain the ECC803S tubes. I recommend them.
Oh yeah, the drums sound waaaayyy better now with the new tubes in! You'll hear the difference in the drums. Clean and bassy -- how drums should sound.
I just changed my stock tubes today, and for me, it made a big difference. If you go to your local guitar store, they should have tubes. Buy them locally, it's cheaper (no shipping charges).. unless your local stores don't have the tubes you're looking for, then buy it online. The tech guy at my local guitar store knew about the EMX, so that was nice. He recommended the JJ Electronic ECC803S tubes because they are very versatile. You can get high gains, a lot of drive (that nice crunchy distortion), but still retain a lot of the details.
I bought two of these for $29 US dollars. I took out the old EH 12AX7 tubes, placed in the JJ ECC803S, and I am GLAD I did this. The ECC803S definitely produced a way cleaner sound, I could hear little details in the songs I never caught before (the EH 12AX7 were kind of foggy and muddy in my opinion) and the ECC803S distortion/crunch was pretty detailed.
The new ECC803S tubes gave an overall cleaner, crisper, more crystal-like sound, but at the same time the tubes allowed some very mean high gains and distortions. Best of both worlds -- a gentleman and a street brawler at the same time. Kind of like James Bond. He wears a tux, but he's also deadly. That can explain the ECC803S tubes. I recommend them.
Oh yeah, the drums sound waaaayyy better now with the new tubes in! You'll hear the difference in the drums. Clean and bassy -- how drums should sound.
I just emailed http://direct-components.com/osc/ to ask about this - here's how it went...
Me: I have a Korg ESX-1 drum machine that has a tube output stage. It came with a pair of Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH tubes in it which to me sound quite noisy and muddy, lacking detail in the high end.
I am looking for a set of tubes that offer a low noise characteristic with a flat frequency response and was wondering what you would recommend. I have read elsewhere of people replacing the EH tubes with JJ ECC803S or Groove Tubes ECC83S with good results - do you think either of these would provide what I'm after or do you have any more suggestions?
Them: The Groove Tube ECC83S or the Tungsol 12AX7 would be my choices however if the unit is prone to noise maybe the Sovtek 12AX7LPS which has a spiral filament and low hum characteristics.
I ended up ordering the groove tubes - will post what I think when I get them
Me: I have a Korg ESX-1 drum machine that has a tube output stage. It came with a pair of Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH tubes in it which to me sound quite noisy and muddy, lacking detail in the high end.
I am looking for a set of tubes that offer a low noise characteristic with a flat frequency response and was wondering what you would recommend. I have read elsewhere of people replacing the EH tubes with JJ ECC803S or Groove Tubes ECC83S with good results - do you think either of these would provide what I'm after or do you have any more suggestions?
Them: The Groove Tube ECC83S or the Tungsol 12AX7 would be my choices however if the unit is prone to noise maybe the Sovtek 12AX7LPS which has a spiral filament and low hum characteristics.
I ended up ordering the groove tubes - will post what I think when I get them
OK I got the Groove Tubes and have run some comparisons.
The stock tubes (the EH's) have a lot more gain than the GT's. (I think because of this) they also tend to distort when pumped. The GT's have a lot more dynamic range when driven and a fair bit more separation overall though this is only noticeable under critical listening.
The GT's maintain the dynamic peaks and troughs with the gain up full whereas the EH's have that whole loud, compressed, distorted sound.
Overall I don't think you should expect too much from a new set of tubes, and while the sonic characteristics were vastly different between the two sets the tone wasn't too much different (though the GT's are slightly better).
So yeah - my opinion is GT's if you like to maintain dynamics and separation, stock tubes if you like to overdrive and distort.
The stock tubes (the EH's) have a lot more gain than the GT's. (I think because of this) they also tend to distort when pumped. The GT's have a lot more dynamic range when driven and a fair bit more separation overall though this is only noticeable under critical listening.
The GT's maintain the dynamic peaks and troughs with the gain up full whereas the EH's have that whole loud, compressed, distorted sound.
Overall I don't think you should expect too much from a new set of tubes, and while the sonic characteristics were vastly different between the two sets the tone wasn't too much different (though the GT's are slightly better).
So yeah - my opinion is GT's if you like to maintain dynamics and separation, stock tubes if you like to overdrive and distort.
Thanks for the review. You should try the JJ ECC803S also. The change was very noticeable on those.justmull wrote:OK I got the Groove Tubes and have run some comparisons.
The stock tubes (the EH's) have a lot more gain than the GT's. (I think because of this) they also tend to distort when pumped. The GT's have a lot more dynamic range when driven and a fair bit more separation overall though this is only noticeable under critical listening.
The GT's maintain the dynamic peaks and troughs with the gain up full whereas the EH's have that whole loud, compressed, distorted sound.
Overall I don't think you should expect too much from a new set of tubes, and while the sonic characteristics were vastly different between the two sets the tone wasn't too much different (though the GT's are slightly better).
So yeah - my opinion is GT's if you like to maintain dynamics and separation, stock tubes if you like to overdrive and distort.