Tube questions....again

[frenchmon]

Yeah..I agree.

[Hyfi]

I just talked to Kevin at VAC and he gave me one hell of an education I will probably never understand. By the time we were done and he took the time to answer my many questions, I am considering ordering tubes from them. The 12AU7s are NOS American, Phillips I think he said and the 12AX7s are from one of 3 Chinese MFGs.

He said the JJ tubes have what he describes as a Bark, along with the signature Sovtek sound of being up front and sharp. With their recommendation of tubes, I would have a more linear sound with some more air, mellower highs and more detailed bass.

He also said that if I upgraded my unit to a MK3, do not run Sovtek tubes in it at all. Also, for my pre-amp, I do not need to worry about spending extra for Low Noise but he does suggest matched pairs.

Each tube they sell is $22 so I can do all 4 for under my $100 mark and get a real good baseline sound that the VAC engineers are familiar with and if I am unsatisfied, he can point me in specific directions to alter the sound any way I want.

Other info he gave was that the AU7s are the more critical tube and should be the higher quality if going that route. But, he also said that with a given set of AUs with another given set of AXs that it will sound just great, and by swapping the AXs, the preferred sound from the AUs would change also. It's all pretty confusing to the layman for sure but I think going with the tubes that they put in their new gear today will put me on the road I am looking for without having to experiment and spend too much money playing around.

Who better to suggest the correct tubes as a good start but the people who created my pre amp.