7N7 tubes

[Nick B]

I bought a used Supratek Chardonnay preamp some months ago. It's a two chassis design and sounds wonderful... a delightful preamp and best I've ever owned. It uses
6NS7 tubes and I've tried a few brands. There was a post over at AC recently...I forgot which thread... but one of the guys said that the 7N7 is an equivalent substitute for the 6NS7, sounds very good and is inexpensive. It does need an adapter, though. I've been doing a bit of reading on this. Apparently Sylvania made most or all of these even though they're branded otherwise.

Does anyone know about this tube, what types/years might sound best and which adapters to use? It's intriguing and a pretty cheap experiment.

[P.I.]

Nick,  here you go:

https://www.jacmusic.com/sockets/Socket-Adapters.htm

https://www.nosvacuumtubes.net/product-category/other-tubes/other-tubes-7n7/

https://www.nosvacuumtubes.net/product-category/other-tubes/other-tubes-7n7/

[Nick B]

Nick,  here you go:

https://www.jacmusic.com/sockets/Socket-Adapters.htm

https://www.nosvacuumtubes.net/product-category/other-tubes/other-tubes-7n7/

https://www.nosvacuumtubes.net/product-category/other-tubes/other-tubes-7n7/

Thanks, Dave. I'll check those out. Quality-wise, would a ceramic adapter be fine? I saw some Yamamoto Teflon adapters. Very expensive 

[ejk]

Nick you can message member Jbtrio with any questions about the preamp. He had one for years and he rolled many tubes through it

[Nick B]

Nick you can message member Jbtrio with any questions about the preamp. He had one for years and he rolled many tubes through it

Thanks, Evan. Just sent him a PM. Jack also owns one and has rolled some through as well. I think it was Joe who I bought my Border Patrol SEi dac from

[Jack]

Nick

After listening to what you had and what I sent you what did you decide worked best with the rest of your setup?

[P.I.]

Thanks, Dave. I'll check those out. Quality-wise, would a ceramic adapter be fine? I saw some Yamamoto Teflon adapters. Very expensive 

IMO - Yamamoto teflon tube sockets are not worth the $$$ for mere mortals like us, but there are these:

https://tctubes.com/tube-sockets.aspx

[Nick B]

Nick

After listening to what you had and what I sent you what did you decide worked best with the rest of your setup?

Jack,

As you might recall, my Supratek preamp came with 6NS7 Tung Sols and you sent me GEs and Raytheons. It took me a little while, but I finally found some comments I had made that indicated I preferred the Raytheons to the Tung Sols. For the last few months now, I've been using the GEs which are very detailed and dynamic. On many/most songs, they're quite nice to listen to. There is some occasional harshness, but it's likely mostly recording related.

The tube listening has also been complicated a bit because I bought two Wywires Silver ICs and a Wywires Platinum digital cable. Even though two of the three were used, they needed many hours on them to sound their best.Tonight I've put the Raytheons back in again and will be living with that for a few weeks and advise. I will continue to check out the availability of 7N7 tubes if the price is reasonable. It would be a fun ..and inexpensive... experiment.

The sound that I've been getting the last few months is so good. There is a synergy with all the gear and the combination of the Audio Envy speaker cables and power cords with the Wywires is quite good.

Nick

[Nick B]

Thanks, Dave. I'll check those out. Quality-wise, would a ceramic adapter be fine? I saw some Yamamoto Teflon adapters. Very expensive 

IMO - Teflon tube sockets are not worth the $$$ for mere mortals like us.

Yeah...I quite agree. It's easy to spend too much 💰 in this hobby 

[Jack]

Nick

I've always thought the GE's to be a bit forward for me and generally only use them as driver tubes in amps or preamps that have 6SN7"s as drivers and input tubes like the Sachs. They have a lot of fans though. I have on pair of Canada GE's that have a completely different sound though and appear to be based on an earlier Hytron design. Over the last few months I've been gravitating more and more towards the RCA sound in both preamps for input tubes. Just something comfortable about them. Periodically I will put in the Raytheon VT-231's or the Hytron GT's but in a few days go back to the RCA's especially with the new Rosso speakers. 

Like Dave I would stick with ceramic adaptors if you can find them. Might want to check with Tyson as he knows where to find all of that kind of stuff especially involving the 6SN7 and other octal tubes. 

[Nick B]

Nick

I've always thought the GE's to be a bit forward for me and generally only use them as driver tubes in amps or preamps that have 6SN7"s as drivers and input tubes like the Sachs. They have a lot of fans though. I have on pair of Canada GE's that have a completely different sound though and appear to be based on an earlier Hytron design. Over the last few months I've been gravitating more and more towards the RCA sound in both preamps for input tubes. Just something comfortable about them. Periodically I will put in the Raytheon VT-231's or the Hytron GT's but in a few days go back to the RCA's especially with the new Rosso speakers. 

Like Dave I would stick with ceramic adaptors if you can find them. Might want to check with Tyson as he knows where to find all of that kind of stuff especially involving the 6SN7 and other octal tubes.

Jack,

The Raytheons are in and sounding pretty good now... It helps if I let those tubes warm up a bit  I am testing my memory and trying to repeat what I listened to last night. I had not heard of the Canada GEs, so I'm doing a search on them. Glad you are enjoying those GEs and the Rosso speakers 🎶

As to the adapters, I looked at the jacmusic site Dave recommended and I'm pretty sure they're ceramic. Dave also just gave me another site with more reasonably priced Teflon adapters.

Thanks,
Nick

[Nick B]

Thanks, Dave. I'll check those out. Quality-wise, would a ceramic adapter be fine? I saw some Yamamoto Teflon adapters. Very expensive 

IMO - Yamamoto teflon tube sockets are not worth the $$$ for mere mortals like us, but there are these:

https://tctubes.com/tube-sockets.aspx

Thank you