Quote Originally Posted by blackraven View Post
Dean, I bought a 1950's Raytheon 12AX7 long black plate with the shinny ribbed plates and it sounds awesome. It leans on the warmer side and it is very dynamic with good bass and high end detail. It has a wide sound stage and the midrange is full and lush. It is also dead quiet. It's a keep and my tube of choice. I may use the NOS Mullard for brighter recorded LP's though a it rolls off the top end a little.
Cool! I was running a pair of RCA 7025s in the preamp section of my Jolida integrated. One of'em went bad and I tried the other one in the Bellari. I think I had the synergy thing going on when I had 7025s in my amp and the old Mullard in the Bellari. The "chimey" RCAs and the warm, liquid Mullard worked well together, but the 7025 didn't "shine" in the Bellari.

I have back-up pairs of the new Mullards and Tung-Sols. Haven't tried one in the Bellari yet. I run a pair of the Sovtek LPS in my Jolida phono amp, but I don't have an extra on hand to try in the Bellari. The Ei gold pin from Yugoslavia that I'm running now was my favorite of a few I tried a couple of years ago, but I've since moved my system to a larger room. The Bellari's low output level, the entry-level 2M Red, the direct-drive Technics, etc. - I'm just not sure where the problem lies in this chain that makes the musical presentation lifeless. The Bellari performed well when my system was in a smaller room and I was running a Pro-Ject 1.2 turntable with the Ortofon M3-Turbo which I moved over to my Rega.

The cartridge leads broke on the Pro-Ject or it would be my second table. I picked up the Technics from Musician's Friend when they closed them out at $325. It's built like a tank, but I need to find something that'll make it sing.