For the last week or so, my cartridge has been severely mistracking on vocals. Puzzling because cartridge wasn't having any problems tracking bells or drums. The problem was getting worse and worse - and checked all the possible culprits. Azimuth. Tracking force. Adjusted tracking force. Alignment double and triple checked and all for naught. Then finally before calling the cartridge's importer, decided to take out the Tele rib plate 12AX7s and put the cj supplied new Tungsol 12ax7s back in.
Guess what? No more distortion on male or female vocalists. Some sibilance but no distortion. No 10,000 hrs for these puppies (or else they already had a lot of hours on them). Oh well, will have to dig into the box and find another pair of Teles to use. This also seems to be common thread among my friends using NOS tubes.Very little sold today is actually new NOS - unless it's sealed (as the pair of Tele E188CC/7308--and these NOS tubes just don't seem to last worth a damn. Don't know if it's that they're used or the gear like an ARC SP10 or Audible Illusions for instance, are just hard on the tubes?
OTOH, these Tungsol reissues just don't come close to sounding like the Teles - but at least cj can select for quiet tubes
Guess what? No more distortion on male or female vocalists. Some sibilance but no distortion. No 10,000 hrs for these puppies (or else they already had a lot of hours on them). Oh well, will have to dig into the box and find another pair of Teles to use. This also seems to be common thread among my friends using NOS tubes.Very little sold today is actually new NOS - unless it's sealed (as the pair of Tele E188CC/7308--and these NOS tubes just don't seem to last worth a damn. Don't know if it's that they're used or the gear like an ARC SP10 or Audible Illusions for instance, are just hard on the tubes?
OTOH, these Tungsol reissues just don't come close to sounding like the Teles - but at least cj can select for quiet tubes
