[triod750]

Yes, that's right.
If they were first produced by Mullard in 1954, you can assume that they were and perhaps it was only towards the end of 1954 that it was superfluous to code them sufficiently.

@Isaacc7 you won't believe it the 807 adapters were one of the first I had made for Ultimate by Deyan.
I've had the amp for just under a year and haven't managed to buy 807 yet.
Half a year ago you could almost only find used or dilapidated 807s.
Suddenly they're popping up like crazy and some cost almost an arm and a leg.
In Germany I've seen Rca's for 45€ each, 6 months ago you could get them in the US for 30$.
Guess I'll have to bite the bullet.

Well, the change code 1 in rX1 indicates that one change of design or batch or something already had taken place.

 

[Isaacc7]

Yes, that's right.
If they were first produced by Mullard in 1954, you can assume that they were and perhaps it was only towards the end of 1954 that it was superfluous to code them sufficiently.

@Isaacc7 you won't believe it the 807 adapters were one of the first I had made for Ultimate by Deyan.
I've had the amp for just under a year and haven't managed to buy 807 yet.
Half a year ago you could almost only find used or dilapidated 807s.
Suddenly they're popping up like crazy and some cost almost an arm and a leg.
In Germany I've seen Rca's for 45€ each, 6 months ago you could get them in the US for 30$.
Guess I'll have to bite the bullet.

The 6bg6 is supposed to be the same tube but with an octal base. Those are still pretty cheap. The 807 was made all over the world but the 6bg6 was only made in the US. There is a Brimar 6bg6 but I suspect that it is actually a US tube.

 

[UntilThen]

I have found the 807 tube family to be consistently great. 5b/254m, vt60a, 807 (Mazda, Mullard, Russian, Sylvania) and the 6bg6ga (RCA and Sylvania) could satisfy anyone. They tend to be quite a bit less expensive than other tube types as well. My current favorite way to run them is 350v 60ma ultra linear push pull. Also love them in triode and SE pentode as well. Once you have the adapters it is cheap to try others and I haven;t heard a bad one yet!

I was just wondering what took you so long to come on this thread. I'm using 5b/254a now. Can't they call it a better name than that? Tubes are not what I am short of now. I just need more than one pair of ears or more listening time. I do a lot of background listening these days.

 

[Isaacc7]

I was just wondering what took you so long to come on this thread. I'm using 5b/254a now. Can't they call it a better name than that? Tubes are not what I am short of now. I just need more than one pair of ears or more listening time. I do a lot of background listening these days.

I can only vouch for the quality of the tubes. Since I don’t own one of these amps I can’t promise what they’ll actually sound like. Yeah, those STC names are awful but the Brits had loads of oddly named tubes.

 

[UntilThen]

I can only vouch for the quality of the tubes. Since I don’t own one of these amps I can’t promise what they’ll actually sound like. Yeah, those STC names are awful but the Brits had loads of oddly named tubes.

In a short while time I will have another McChanson KT150 amp that has a voltage of 350v and I will bias GEC 807 to 60mA. I can tell you now that GEC 807 in Ultimate sound more resolving and crystal clear than in the KT150 speaker amp - with headphones. Anyone who want to hear this is welcome to come here.

 

[mordy]

I can only vouch for the quality of the tubes. Since I don’t own one of these amps I can’t promise what they’ll actually sound like. Yeah, those STC names are awful but the Brits had loads of oddly named tubes.

There is a reason why the British tubes have such strange denominations. The British could not compete pricewise with the US factories. Instead of producing the same tube with the same denomination, they invented different nomenclature to confuse the issue and avoid direct price comparisons. Then this system carried over to other tubes as well.

 

[triod750]

From Valve Museum http://www.r-type.org/addtext/add038.htm

 

[Nick Ryan]

Hi all, so the 5B254A pair arrived today, what does everyone do to accomodate the difference in the anode cap sizes. My adaptors fit the 807’s perfectly. The 5B 254A has a smaller anode cap.

 

[crakers7]

Hi all, so the 5B254A pair arrived today, what does everyone do to accomodate the difference in the anode cap sizes. My adaptors fit the 807’s perfectly. The 5B 254A has a smaller anode cap.

I use these, not many left

 

[OctavianH]

There is a reason why the British tubes have such strange denominations. The British could not compete pricewise with the US factories. Instead of producing the same tube with the same denomination, they invented different nomenclature to confuse the issue and avoid direct price comparisons. Then this system carried over to other tubes as well.

This is indeed interesting. Besides the usual suspects like STC which have strange tube type names, I've seen some Mazda or Tesla which are also different. For example Tesla 6L31 which seems to be an EL90. But there are more and sometimes if you search for these on Ebay instead the more famous types you might get a nice surprise.

 

[Deleeh]

@UntilThen Are these good tubes where are linked in the picture?

A stupid question on the side if I want to use these on my Junior I have to plug in the 6J5 to 6SN7 socket and then put this adapter on both or?
https://www.ebay.de/itm/204505189120
The name of the adapter is a bit stupid unfortunately.

 

[mordy]

@UntilThen Are these good tubes where are linked in the picture?



A stupid question on the side if I want to use these on my Junior I have to plug in the 6J5 to 6SN7 socket and then put this adapter on both or?
https://www.ebay.de/itm/204505189120
The name of the adapter is a bit stupid unfortunately.

There is one variant of the the RCA 6SN7GTB that sounds quite good - it has a horizontal heater wire above the top mica.
If you have a single 6SN7 socket in your amp you only need one since it is a dual triode.

 

[mordy]

Has anyone been able to compare the newly released ZMF Aegis to the McChanson Ultimate?

 

[crakers7]

Has anyone been able to compare the newly released ZMF Aegis to the McChanson Ultimate?

I asked the same question on the Aegis forums , I don't think so as there are very few of us UltimatE owners and Aegis is only new . Im very curious only because I love ZMF headphones and everyone who has heard the Aegis with ZMF raves about it but I also rave about my ZMF Atrium Opens with my UltimatE . I guess it's that audiophile itch needing to be scratched . I think I may just build the DIY version eventually .

 

[VanHai]

I asked the same question on the Aegis forums , I don't think so as there are very few of us UltimatE owners and Aegis is only new . Im very curious only because I love ZMF headphones and everyone who has heard the Aegis with ZMF raves about it but I also rave about my ZMF Atrium Opens with my UltimatE . I guess it's that audiophile itch needing to be scratched . I think I may just build the DIY version eventually .

That would be a very interesting comparison. I did bring this attention to The (Un)Official Amp Thread For ZMF Headphones. As far as I know, I am the only one who has The UltimatE with 5v and 3Am rectifier, the same as ZMF Aegis(DIY Aegis has 2Am) in the US now. Hopefully, we will have some more owners to make it easy for comparison.