Hello from a musician and instrument maker

[Phil_Barone]

Thank y’all for having me. I’m a professional musician (sax, piano and some crappy flute and clarinet) and I make saxophone mouthpieces and have my own line of saxophones.

I started my audio journey a few years ago and have settled on CJ Premier 17LS preamp, CJ Premier 12 monoblocks, Schiit Yaggi Dac, Rel s510 sub, Proac Response Three speakers and I have a Schiit Folkvanger headphone amp. I’m pretty satisfied but if business gets better I’m might buy myself some Coherent 18 speakers. We’ll see.

I’d like to know if anyone has any suggestions on tubes for my Premier 12s.

Thanks I’m advance and if you want to see my hand-made mouthpieces go to my site at PhilBarone.com.

Be well, Phil

[admin]

Hi Phil,
Welcome to CJO. Great to have you with us.

Great setup. I've used Schiit components before and I think they offer some of the best bang for your buck. The fact that they make their components in the US and maintain their price points is very impressive.

With tube prices where they are currently, retubing puts a strain on a lot of us. I don't own the Premier 12 so I will let others chime in on what they think is best. A solid recommendation is to buy the tubes directly from CJ as those can be assured to be high quality. Of course, there will be a premium on that purchase.

Again, welcome to CJO. Great to have you with us.

[AnotherJohnson]

As admin says, welcome.

Here’s a link to stock 6550s of good quality.

https://upscaleaudio.com/collections/va ... monix-6550

Don’t waste your money on cheap tubes. CJ and Upscale both practice good quality control. Everyone has their favorite vendor… but when push comes to shove, CJ has a huge incentive to give you the best, and Upscale has the buying power and commitment to equal CJ’s quality, often at a lower price.

[Big Dog RJ]

G'day mate, greetings from down unda.

Solid advice from AJ, especially with the Prem12's. These are CJ's Premier series amplifiers, and were SOTA during that time. Therefore, replacement tube sets from CJ is the way to go, if you're serious in getting top quality sound. If not, there's plenty of snake oil out there...

Based in the US, I would always go with CJ or Upscale but I'm not! In Aus, it's very hard to find reliable tube suppliers... most of them are folding up! Down unda, SS devices are the norm, tube gear is only available for very selective group of people who know about tubes and are truly passionate about tubes.

Sadly my Aus local supplier has gone bonkers with pricing, has increased by three times the price, which is highly unnecessary. Therefore, my GOTO suppliers for my particular CJ monoblocks are CJ direct and Watford Valves UK. I've dealt with Derek Rocco for a while now and have found his service to be tops but that's because I'm located down unda and not in the US.

As for brands/ type: when I did have the Prem12's, I used the 6550A first from GE. Subsequently when I ordered the Prem11A and Prem8A's, both of these amplifier systems came fitted with the 6550C type, which are from SED (Svetlana Electron Devices) made in Russia. These proved to be perfect match for all three systems (Prem11A, 12 & 8A), which we used for many years with great success.

I do happen to know just two other people who tried out the KT88 series, which gave a slightly different flavour in the midrange... which both liked for a short while. However, after they auditioned our amplifiers fitted with the 6550C SED tubes, they both preferred these and placed orders through us.

On another note, CJ's Premier series power amps were offered as two versions. The standard version, which provided full rated output power and the XS version, which was configured in Triode mode, using EL34 tubes and halving the power output. Two of our customers did this at the time, one fitted EL34's to his Prem11A and the other did EL34's on his Prem12's. Both these special XS versions were remarkable when it came to supreme midrange and a highly palpable soundstage, where you could reach out and touch the musicians! However, these XS versions were more suited to slightly higher efficient speakers. The one person who had the XS version of the Prem11A used ProAc Tablet speakers, superb! The other person who used the XS version on his Prem12's used Quad ESL 63's placed on top of Gradient subs, that was another fabulous setup.

Again, it all depends on your listening tastes and habits but overall these owners were really impressed with the 6550C SED tubes supplied by CJ at the time. There are a host of other brands of 6550's being offered, from Tungsol, GE, SED, Genalex, etc., I haven't used all of these types but can certainly recommend the SED and GE, since CJ uses the same.

Definitely don't go chasing the cheap stuff and those fancy NOS tubes. They don't last too long, although initially they sound quite different from the norm... since they're so old and rare, and suddenly poof! They burn out. I've had my fair share of NOS nonsense, and currently have 12 burnt out
NOS tubes sitting pretty as decorations! Will never go there again.

Hope you find something good and of high quality.

Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes!
RJ

[roberto]

Hola and welcome Phil,

One thing regarding Conrad Johnson is the quality signature sound that it has. As the Company slogan says is: Conrad Johnson sounds right...this is a real true for my ears. The ears are the final judges. What you hear, is your truth.

I do also play classical guitar and some jazzy mood. I love harmony and I am not too good with improvising...just love the rhythm and a be a second guitar.

You already got good advices above...tubes are temperamental sometimes. They once and them do a fart, or are very snobby. Bad recordings are really bad. The good thing is that what being really bad, still there is an illusion: the musicians are having fun playing together...I just love this feature.

Fresh tubes are a general rule, replacing them after three years of use is a good thing. The tubes do degrade with the use. If you are not having fun listening the music as you did before, it is the time for replace them. Yes, it is an investment, but your ears will be granted again with this signature sound quality. On the other hand, if you are liking a lot what you are hearing, then it is not necessary to change them...usually there is a loss of high frequency or a channel might sound louder than the other...small signal tubes are usually the culprit of this.

Welcome again, and in this forum we speak about sound quality and music!!!

Happy listening!