Sovtek 12AX7WA - Never again??

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Deepdark

Well-known member
Joined
May 19, 2013
Messages
1,321
Location
Quebec, Canada
I playing with my la2a circuit and different tubes for fun. First, I had some low cost JJ. Works good, have a little hum with headphone at max only. Tried chinese dump taken from a Bellari, works great (no jokes) no hum at all. Tried a old RCA 12AU7, works great, too. Tried the infamous 12ay7 (Electro hrmonix) wow! what a great sounding little beast. No hum at all. Then Sovtek 12AX7WA. Unusable. really. Louder hum than the JJ, quiet a good bit to be honnest. Not unusable, way under audio passing thourhg, but it is there. But the worst of all, the ringing. It can't even take a bit of drive without beginning to ring and sound weird. Both the 2 I tried. To be honnest, I didn't read any technical data sheet about teh WA to be sure it was ok. Maybe it's something related with Sovtek brand, I don't know. Weird.

But, it's interesting to see how different brand, different manufacturing time and so on can change the overall fonctionnality and overall performance of a given unit, it's noise characteristics, etc.
 
this is a good version of the WA,  60 a pair,
you get what you pay for with tubes,

JAN= Joint Army Navy, not a party between service men,
 

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The 12AX7 and the 12AU7 tubes are completely different. You cannot just use either one in a given circuit and expect them to work never mind perform. You can try different brands of the same tube but not different types of tube.

The Sovtek 12AX7WA is a very good tube. I recommend it for use in my Eurochannel mic pre design because they have consistently low noise and low microphonics of all the different brands of 12AX7 I have tried.

Cheers

Ian
 
Yes of course it's bette to test same thing together. For now, the jj, the cheap 12ax7 from the bellari comp and even one from a behringer sound good. Little hum with the jj but really low. I don't understand why the Sovtek sound that bad and have such hum. Really weird
 
Deepdark said:
Yes of course it's bette to test same thing together. For now, the jj, the cheap 12ax7 from the bellari comp and even one from a behringer sound good. Little hum with the jj but really low. I don't understand why the Sovtek sound that bad and have such hum. Really weird

As I said before, the Sovtek 12AX7 is a good tube. Sounds like you have a faulty one.

Cheers

Ian
 
ruffrecords said:
Deepdark said:
Yes of course it's bette to test same thing together. For now, the jj, the cheap 12ax7 from the bellari comp and even one from a behringer sound good. Little hum with the jj but really low. I don't understand why the Sovtek sound that bad and have such hum. Really weird

As I said before, the Sovtek 12AX7 is a good tube. Sounds like you have a faulty one.

Cheers

Ian

It's really probable. In fact, I tried the 2 I had (I bought them from tube depot 2 weeks ago) and both act the same. One has little less hum, though. It's possible they got a bad batch I guess
 
CJ said:
this is a good version of the WA,  60 a pair,
you get what you pay for with tubes,

JAN= Joint Army Navy, not a party between service men,

loool. You're right, we get what we paid for and today, it's more than a fact.
 
Deepdark said:
I playing with my la2a circuit and different tubes for fun.
Years ago I did the same with my D-LA2A, and the winner for sure is Telefunkens ECC803S.
However, looking at the prices I should take them out of the side-chain and sell them.
 
[silent:arts] said:
Deepdark said:
I playing with my la2a circuit and different tubes for fun.
Years ago I did the same with my D-LA2A, and the winner for sure is Telefunkens ECC803S.
However, looking at the prices I should take them out of the side-chain and sell them.

Just for fun, what was the brand that was the most Noisy/humming/worst performer in your D-LA2A?
 
Deepdark said:
Just for fun, what was the brand that was the most Noisy/humming/worst performer in your D-LA2A?

That was eight years ago, can't find anything anymore on my computer, but regarding the Internet JJ was worst.

http://www.energyrecording.de/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=405&start=81
 
[silent:arts] said:
Deepdark said:
Just for fun, what was the brand that was the most Noisy/humming/worst performer in your D-LA2A?

That was eight years ago, can't find anything anymore on my computer, but regarding the Internet JJ was worst.

http://www.energyrecording.de/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=405&start=81

Looks like you had experienced something similar than me, exept that the noise floor on the JJ isn't that bad compared to your past results :) Mine is worst with Sovtek haha. I just found some people who had the same ringing/microphonic trouble that I have had experienced.

Interesting to see how different noise and performance can be with different brand/batch
 
ruffrecords said:
Are your Sovtek's NOS or current production?

Cheers

Ian

Current production. Funny enought, I just tried it again and they worked good. They exhibit more hum than all other 12ax7 I tried, but the kinda hollowed/ringing sound dissapeared. Maybe it was just an routing configuration. For now, the Bellari tubes are the best in term of noise. JJ's are better than the Sovtek too. Not that the Sovtek are that Noisy, but the hum is greater, but still well Under the audio

Making all those test make me see how different one tube can perform  to another.
 
I too haven't had much success with sovtek, although as mentioned so much will depend on the application.

Maybe give Tung Sol a try. They seem to work well for not too much more money.
 
john12ax7 said:
I too haven't had much success with sovtek, although as mentioned so much will depend on the application.

Maybe give Tung Sol a try. They seem to work well for not too much more money.

Yes, I just called 2 Tung sol. Let's see how clean they are :)
 
When looking at a Spectrum analyser, I tried different brand at V1

JJ 12AX7: Hum peak at about -79dbfs
Bellari 12AX7 (t know the brand): -83dbfs
Sovtek 12AX7WA: about -67dbfs
EH 12AY7: about -88dbfs

Will report the test with EH 12AX7 and Tung Sol later.
 
what are you lookin for, low noise? low distortion?

then you want the Mullard ECC83 or the Amperex,

Maybe a Telefunken smooth plate would sound nice,

do you have an ebay account?  what is your password and credit card number, i can order you some stuff,  :D
 
CJ said:
what are you lookin for, low noise? low distortion?

then you want the Mullard ECC83 or the Amperex,

Maybe a Telefunken smooth plate would sound nice,

do you have an ebay account?  what is your password and credit card number, i can order you some stuff,  :D

haha nope, no eBay account, no credit card, no paypal, I'm a homeless child  ;)

What I'm looking for at first is low noise. It's quiet fun to test how different brand and models perform in a same circuit  ;D
 

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