Swapping tubes on a good mic pre

[conguero]

First off, Has anyone done this and how were the results?
Overwhelming?
underwhelming?
so so?
or just no difference at all?

I am currently awaiting the arrival of 3 telefunken 12 AX7's NOS smooth plate tubes.
Two of them are a matched pair that will go into the pre amp section and the other tube will go into the comp section. The LA-610 actually has 5 tubes, but I was told to leave the other two tubes in because they are very good and are responsible for the warm color that I like. The 3 stock 12AX7's that come with the pre are russian or chineese crap. The telefunkens are suppose to give a tighter bottom end which would be great because it is my main bass DI, and a smoothe top end making it more open sounding.
The tubes were purchased from a respectable dealer. He is Brent Jesse and has garanteed the tubes to be authentic and NOS. He says that I have a 30 day period and if the pre does not sound better with the telefunken tubes, I can return the tubes and he will refund the $$$.

If anyone can chime in I would appreciate it. If not I will later post how the whole thing turned out.
Javier

[C/G]

It worked wonders in my guitar amps so you can pretty much bank on it making a difference in your LA 610. Do a before and after sample so you can really compare. Brent is a good shit so no worries, and one of the only guys that will guarantee his tubes to sound good. Did I recommend him to you?

[conguero]

Thanx for the reply colin. I have plenty of original tracks in my hard drives to compare it to but I will track some vocals before I get the tubes then retrack the same vocals with the tubes installed to have a better grip on the situation.
regards,
Javier thumbsup

[conguero]

I was on the sweetwater forum and someone wih the handle (vo-guy) recommended him to me because he also swapped the tubes from his LA-610. So unless you're him I don't know but thanx anyway buddy.

[C/G]

No, not me, I tend to recommend him to guys on this board just because of his kick-ass warranty policy.

[De chromium cob]

I bought a Summit TPA200 for super cheap one time because the guy selling it thought it was broken- To fix it I replaced the tubes with NOS Mullards and it sounded fantastic! I later sold it for $700 more than I bought it for....
I love it when people dont change the tubes!

[VO-Guy]

Hey, this is VO-Guy. Yeah, I did the exact same thing and got them from Brent also. I don't regret it a bit. You'll love it!

[conguero]

Wazzup Vo-Guy,
Still waiting on the postman for those tubes. I will post with my review as soon as I plug those puppies in!

[VO-Guy]

I'm waiting on the postman myself for a Finalizer. The tubes will sound great when you put'em in but they'll sound even better after a couple of days. Wouldn't trade mine now for anything. I don't care what people say about the LA-610. It's working great for me and that's what counts and I definitely recommend anyone looking for a new box to check it out. It won't work on everything, but what it does work on sounds great! Especially vocals. Let me know how ya like the tubes when ya get'em in.

[wallace]

I've been waiting for Geoff Tanner to fix my GTQ2 for the last 4 months so I've only really had my UA 2-610 to work with in that time. I recently replaced the 12ax7 tubes with NOS telefunken tubes, and then I also replaced the 6072 tubes with some 1962 GE 5 star tubes. I posted a MP3 somewhere on here about a month ago with the tele and also the mullard. the mullard sounds good, it's probably preference. The difference isn't huge in the comparison, but in daily use, i think the preamp has much more of a glow to it, like the difference between a 60 and a 75 watt light bulb. That's how it comes across to me at least. I think the thing sound pretty good, but it's been a long time since I've had another preamp to listen to!

[conguero]

Well'
I got the tubes on Friday and installed them rather quickly.
I turned the la 610 on for about 3 hours without recording anything, just to burn any tube gas. I had a bass session on saturday and warmed the pre up for about 45 minutes. The session was for salsa music so the bass was an Ampeq upright. I plugged it in the the lA-610 and could'nt get it to sound right. It was too boomy and believe me we fiddled with every knob. So I went on to my ISA 220 and it sounded great. The bassist brought in another bass which was a cross between an electric acoustic upright. So I plugged it in the 220 and did not get the same results. So for the heck of it I switched to the LA-610 and with some minor ajustments in eq and compression, this thing sounded awsome. Not as punchy as the Ampeq but with a richer fuller sound.

I have a feeling that with this preamp things tend to either sound really bad or really good with no type of middle ground.

The next session that I will use it on is horns. The section is 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, and a baritone sax. I have had good success with this pre on horns before so I think it should work just as good or better with the telefunken tubes.

I'll try to keep you posted.

[twotracker]

So far my experience with tube swapping or tube rolling makes me believe it's a tweek more than a major change. A really good tweek though.

I bought some NOS Telefunken and Mullards 12ax7 from upscale http://www.upscaleaudio.com/home.asp
(very trust-worthy)

and first tried them in my TLA gear (yeah I've got the PA-1, C-1, and EQ-1, wanna make somethin' of it?) It improves the sound but not radically.

Right now those tubes live in my Pendulum MDP-1 and Manley Vari-MU, where they're gonna stay. It's not a major change in sound but definately a step up and worth doing. Seems to me that the mids are smoother, that you can push them a little harder and when the "tube warmth" (distortion) kicks in it's less harsh than the Russian stocks.

[Dopamine]

Based on my readings here, I too decided to replace the tubes in my 610. I got them from Brent Jesse. When I asked him the difference between the Telefunken tubes and the RCA black (priced half as much), he told me that the RCA's should sound just about as good as the Telefunken, and a HUGE improvement over the "cheap Chinese tubes" that come stock in the UA.

Well, after burning the tubes in for 50 hrs or so, I did a double blind listening test.

The originals sounded better in every case, much more definition and punch. The RCA's clouded things up.

Still waiting for him to credit me for he return.