Orange Amps Forum

Just saw this on youtube, and thought why not sharing it here.
Could be interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54amD7idP0c&t=90s

Hope it's not been posted before.

He always does great videos. I liked the Audio Classic, Tung Sol and the Ultron the best. I think I've only ever used the Tung Sol out of those three. May have to look into the others! I mainly use EHX and always liked them but they sounded a bit tame in this video. Never was a fan of JJ's really. I think EHX actually distribute JJ in N.A.

The Tung Sol and Audio Classic stood out the most to my ears. And the EHX in the video seems funny to me, bought once one to try it just for fun in my Micro Terror and to me it seemed to overdrive earlier than tha stock JJ and to be overall more aggressive. I definitely gonna try Tung Sol's when I retube my Fender Vaporizer, that thing shows very well the differences between valves.

Only thing I’m finding online for Audio Classics are Genelex Gold Lions. Ultron are new old stock. Expensive in comparison to the others. Good that a difference can be heard. Get what you pay for I guess!

Jondog wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:58 pm

Only thing I’m finding online for Audio Classics are Genelex Gold Lions. Ultron are new old stock. Expensive in comparison to the others. Good that a difference can be heard. Get what you pay for I guess!

Ultron was a rebranded, like TAD or ruby Ultron actually is a RFT ECC83. I've got a bunch of them, they are fantastic.
However, that one didn't break up as much as you'd expect- their crunch is harder and sets in slightly earlier.

The ? ECC83 is a Hungarian Tungsram I believe (even though it has England silk screened). Got a bunch of those too, and it is a wonderful valve too. The plate and the post supporting the getter seems to point to that.

Also.... most British valves actually had Great Britain silk screened, England is almost always a tell take sign of foreign made valve rebranded somewhere else.

I've been lucky and found a Russian seller with NOS RFT and Tungsram valves rebranded RSD, and managed to buy a lot of his valves for between $15 and $20 each. Could never have afforded them otherwise.

Unfortunately here, that Ultron (RFT) doesn't perform like the ones I have.

Which brings me to..... the JJ, TAD and Mesa valves, as they were particularly horrid/poor. JJ don't have much high end.... but don't usually lack gain. Those 3 sounded so poor, I'm wondering if they were actually good valves?

Also, a great shame he didn't try a clean picking letting the string rings. The NOS would have really shone at that too.

Great video, as usual. Tung Sols hold their own with anything, especially considering the price. Choice of preamp tubes is a very personal decision.