Rattly bloody valves

jca74

ICBM said:

If they made a version with dummy valves round the back I think it would fool a lot of people. And rattle as well .

Don't remember the company but someone did this in the 90s. Fake valves with leds in for the glow....

impmann

jca74 said:

ICBM said:

If they made a version with dummy valves round the back I think it would fool a lot of people. And rattle as well .

Don't remember the company but someone did this in the 90s. Fake valves with leds in for the glow....

Yup, Carlton Amps iirc

ICBM

impmann said:

Yup, Carlton Amps iirc

They weren’t fake, they were actual solid-state valve replacements. If I remember rightly they had reliability issues and never made it past the development phase.

The company then tried making valve amps, which sounded absolutely awful - ironically, they’d previously made all-solid-state amps which sounded very good.

Littlejonny

Yes JJs are shite in my opinion. I always used to have rattle problems with them, and they really don’t sound good.

I eventually discovered Harma from Watford Valves and EHX can be nice as well. They really do sound better too - it’s not just snake oil.

GavRichList

Littlejonny said:

Yes JJs are shite in my opinion. I always used to have rattle problems with them, and they really don’t sound good.

I eventually discovered Harma from Watford Valves and EHX can be nice as well. They really do sound better too - it’s not just snake oil.

Never heard of harma but I’ll have a look. The way my brain works now means that I have a staunch brand loyalty to the red plate / premium selected TAD offerings, *just* because they’re a vast improvement over the JJs. I’m special like that. 

Boromedic

Littlejonny said:

Yes JJs are shite in my opinion. I always used to have rattle problems with them, and they really don’t sound good.

I eventually discovered Harma from Watford Valves and EHX can be nice as well. They really do sound better too - it’s not just snake oil.

Shame Harma valves are a house brand for Watford Valves which means I'd never buy them, plus they are just rebranded valves from somewhere. The snake oil people mention with Harma isn't their standard valves, it's the ridiculous cryo horseshit, plus the owners attitude.

EHX are okay but spiky sounding, not as smooth as others generally. JJs can be good, just not as reliable or long lasting sometimes. Internet searches indicate Harma valves are from the same factory as EHX which is Russian origin (new sensor) I believe.

springhead

If you buy ‘direct’ , JJ or New Sensor/Reflektor then you are doing QC checks on their behalf. I think they give them a cursory performance test but nothing more. Harma and TAD are buying valves from those two factories and putting them through their own performance, noise, microphony and burn in tests and rejecting x% of them. 

Modulus_Amps

JJ 6L6 and 6V6's often suffer from rattles, Sometimes there is even bits of mica loose in the valve that you can see and hear when you rattle the valve. 

The main reason internet wisdom suggests JJ 6V6's is they are meant to handle higher voltages better, like those found in a deluxe reverb.

My experience in swapping out vintage (RCA??) 6V6's with JJ is that I preferred the vintage ones, so if you found modern ones you like and they don't fail on short notice then that's perfect.

Alex2678

I was on the fence about trying something else having installed JJs after a shorted Groove Tubes 6v6 last year and this thread tipped me over the edge, bought some tad red base 6v6GTs. Glad I did, sound great and an irritating high pitched ringing that I was blaming on the reverb tank has now gone. The JJs can sit as spares but as long as I can get hold of an alternative I think I will

GavRichList

Alex2678 said:

I was on the fence about trying something else having installed JJs after a shorted Groove Tubes 6v6 last year and this thread tipped me over the edge, bought some tad red base 6v6GTs. Glad I did, sound great and an irritating high pitched ringing that I was blaming on the reverb tank has now gone. 

This pleases me greatly 

Modulus_Amps

I see there is now a more durable version of the JJ 6V6 with double top mica spacers, wonder why they thought to do that.

A custom version of the JJ 6V6-S with a double top mica for increased stability. The double mica improves support for the tube structure and reduces mechanical vibrations in its components. These double mica 6V6 tubes are a great option for combo amps and any amplifiers exposed to speaker vibrations.