Nice! i was planning on gettin those black diamond tubes really soon but going siemens ecc801/1 up front. Do you feel the teles give you more clarity? Or spatial feeling?

I bought the real deal vintage Telefunkens.

I read enough about the black diamond new production to cancel my order that I had placed for them...

Sonically speaking, it's hard to say what difference the Telefunkens make. I actually bought them purely for economic reasons, as they will likely last long enough that they will cost less than frequently replacing new tubes as they die. Also, as I have experienced, a tube death can take down other parts of the ADL600 with it, so you might be looking at an expensive repair down the road.

Right now I'm passing music through the line level inputs of the ADL600. IMO, the ADL600 is pretty damn clean. Maybe a little bit of tube puffiness going on. I notice it more when I use the ADL600 as a bass DI. It makes my bass sound a little more euphonic and fat. Nothing over the top, but there's definitely a hint of sweetening. I didn't buy this preamp for heavy color, so it's fine with me.

Oh so you went all out with the tubes damn. See what you ae talking about is really what im kinda looking for in tube preamps. I feel the Fearn is damn near exactly what i want but i only have one channel of it. Plus the ADL isway more versatile in that you can connect ur mic and line things and they have their own inputs, just a front panel switch to change the incoming signal.

I got my ADL600 for cheap. With the tube investment, I still have less money in this game than anybody who bought this preamp for the full price.

It's hard to say what you should do. If the Fearn is exactly what you want, why not save up and get another channel? I wouldn't try to make the ADL600 be something that it's not.

How does the ADL600 compare to the Fearn BTW?

Me too. Thats why im kinda hoping these tubes turn it into the piece i will never part with.

I would at least try the Mullard 12AT7 aka CV4024. That tube sounds great in any circuit that I have tried.

I own both the Fearn vt1 and the adl 600. i wouldn't say they are all that similar. The Fearn seems to reproduce more highs and lows. The high end on the Fearn is crystal clear, the low end is massive. The adl high end is sweet, but not as clear. The low end is a bit more muddy. However, I love both preamps. The Fearn is almost always my go to for snare, acoustic guitars and vocals. I love the ask for drum overheads, bass and acoustic guitars. The di input is also pretty awesome. I will also run full stereo mixes through the ask with great results. The adl has needed service a few times, and I've replaced the tubes a couple times, where my Fearn is #19 and has been serviced once since 1996 and still has the original tubes.

What tubes did you use for replacement on the ADL600?

I'm running mixes through the ADL600 right now, and it is very difficult to hear any difference when doing an A/B.

Maybe my ears suck? Maybe it's a testament to just how clean the ADL600 is? Or a testament to the high quality tubes that I am using?

I do agree that the ADL600 has a special effect on DI bass.

I don't remember what tubes I replaced them with. I didn't do it for sound reasons-I've never had an issue with how it sounds. I replaced them because the old tubes became noisy.
I can't comment on your ears, to me running mixes through the adl600 puts a bit of a "sheen" on things and adds a bit of low mid saturation. Maybe play around with how hard you hit it.

I just bought an ADL600 and joined the club

Thing is, the tubes are old stock tubes and one channel has noisy tubes. So it's time to swap tubes.

I'm wondering what people's thoughts are on tube choices for the ADL 600 in 2017.

12AT7/ECC81
First pick:
Telefunken NOS which everyone loves
Second picks:
French RT if I can find them...
Gold Lion ($90)
Mullard NOS ($80) or The Mullard new production tubes ($44) at half the price of NOS, but Mullards are a bit noisy in spec in comparison.
https://tubedepot.com/tube-comparison-tool


6922/E88CC
First pick:
Gold Lion ($140) which I LOVE in my headphone amp even more than an Amperex golden globe. Very well rated for this application on TubeDepot (Quiet, sensitivity, headroom, gain)
Second picks:
Jan Sylvania ($160)
Telefunken black diamond ($200) which seem too $$$ for a small difference in this part of the circuit.
Mullard ($200), Seems like I should go Telefunken at the same cost...


Avoiding JJ (Too lo-fi).

I ask because I have heard the light years of difference between stock tubes for my microphones and headphones amps in the past. I've had great luck with JAN GE 6072A and Gold Lion in the past.

Any input or thoughts on your favorites will be helpful as I tube roll away

Mr. Forssell said that each stage is important in that circuit and that they all split gain equally. So i would probably get the best you can in each stage. For 12AT7s i love the Siemens ECC801/S tubes and im still trying to figure out what tubes im gonna throw into the 6922 parts so im all ears in that department.

I'd say, first decide what kind of sound do you want to get from it -- German, British, or American? I say this because the black plate RCA 12AT7 are also really nice , beefy sounding tubes that will steer the sound more toward vintage American pre's, which is also a very good a direction to take it. Also, the old Sylvania 12AT7WA are one of the best tubes they made, and still relatively inexpensive.

Thanks for the replies! I'll try to check out the Siemens ECC801 and Sylvania tubes. Sure wish I could try them all.

Edit: I ordered a pair of Telefunkens for the 12at7 and one Gold Lion 12at7 to compare. I also ordered the Gold Lion 6922 matched quads.

$210 all together with an alternate 12at7 tube for another flavor.

Had some RCA black plates in there for a bit. Definitely darker than the stock tubes. Not my favorite for tracking but REALLY good as a coloring device for mixing especially on vocals. Unfortunately one of mine recently went microphonic so I am back to searching out other tubes for this thing. thanks for the info helps narrow it down!

I know ive said it a million times but ive clamped down on going Siemens all around. The E88CC tube are about 500 for a set of 4 and about 150 for the ECC801/S tubes so its either a sink or swim situation with these tubes. If they work out great ill probablu buy another ADL and do the same to have 4 channels, if they dont im gonna sell it and go with a Sebatron VMP quadplus.

[QUOTE=chainrule;11173255]totally different you can't directly compare. Although ADL is better than Neve prism and VR not the older 10xx series modules


Neve and API never made tube pres





If you want a tube sound you won't get it from Neve or API.. It's all preference, it's all subjective as well. ADL is a good, I just don't think it's $2000 good[/totally different you can't directly compare. Although ADL is better than Neve prism and VR not the older 10xx series modules

G whiz

Jesus people talk some **** in these forums.

I engineered the main instrument on what is for the last 3 weeks the #1 single on the Billboard contemporary Jazz charts, it's a saxophonist named Paula Atherton, the song is called Can You Feel It. The signal chain for Paula's sax was a hot rodded TFunk AR-51 with a Campbell capsule into my ADL 600 into a tube tech CL1b.

I checked out the title song and it sounds great. Congrats. Look out Candy Dulfer.

Man. that Sax sound frickin Great!!! really nice

Ever put any mixes through the ADL?

really clean and tight. I dig it. What was on Overheads? who got to do the 'yeahs' lol?

Thanks Glenn, I think you meant Candy Dulfer, Paula is absolutely the real deal, she started as a straight ahead player, studied with Lee Konitz and Bob Mintzer among others and has played with jazz legends like Hank Jones. We're finishing the album now. She plays sax flute and sings and is great at all. She also co wrote this song.

Thanks, sax sounds starts with the player, Paula has a huge sound, my hot rodded AR 51 helped capture it along with the ADL 600. No I don't run mixes through the ADL I mix on a large format analog console with automation, the only thing that lives on my 2 buss is the SSL FGX 384. To be honest though I didn't mix this song the guy who produced it Greg Manning did and I believe it was all ITB with Logic.
I produce the majority of Paula's music and the ADL is all over her recordings, I use it for the overheads when recording drums, I use it pretty much for most anything that is recorded DI or with one mic or a stereo recording. I have a lot of pres here and I'd have to say my ADL gets used first before anything else.

The drums are all midi, not real, the only real instruments to my knowledge is the sax which I recorded and the guitar which Greg recorded . 99.999% of Paula's recording have real drums and bass and guitar and horns. And on those the VI's are usually pianos, rhodes, organs and strings and the odd synth pad. This album we wanted to try something different and got a few outside producers to do some tracks for Paula, Greg is a friend of Paula's and very successful in this genre. He's also a great guy, and an absolute pleasure to work with.

Hey guys would anyone run a mix through the ADL 600 for me so I can make my own evaluation? I figure this is going to be the easiest 'tell' for the character of the unit. I can supply the mix

With the ADL being discontinued for a while, it seems the Peach Audio tube pre would be an excellent alternative. This unit gives you the option of using a transfomer or not in the unit for a airy or slightly more weighted sound.

https://vintageking.com/peach-audio-...eo-tube-preamp

I have the ADL700 (channelstrip version - same preamp but only one). I haven't used it much for a couple years or so. Maybe just because I have other more recently purchased "shiny object" preamps to play with.

So because of this thread and Musiclab's recent success with his, I decided to fire it up and use it for some vocals yesterday. Sounded glorious.

Thought I’d reply for future readers, there’s a ‘tube mixbus’ shootout if you search for it in highend. A mix was run through a dozen different tube units to see which sounded, well good. To me the ADL was bigger and smoother than a pultec, so the ADL will be living on my mixbus. Check out the shootout, pultecs, massive passive, Stam, warm, klark, summit etc etc

The ADL is the biggest smoothest unit in existence and the shootout proves it so. If you want ‘bite’ the Summit Audio was my next favourite. Absolutely blissful

After a few months with the ADL I thought I’d post my thoughts for future readers. I purchased it after critical listening in the ‘tube mixbus shootout’ we did with over a dozen different units. I would have happily paid big bucks for something like a Massive Passive if it was what I liked the best. The ADL sounded best to me, the low end is huge, it’s like there’s a whole other octave down there. The highend is either sparkling and clear or beautifully saturated depending on how hard you run into it. The midrange is softened which is perfect for digital mixes. It’s super punchy. It now lives on my mixbus and if more people got to hear it, more people would be searching for one. It’s the heaviest unit I’ve ever picked up and I got no idea how a rack manages to hold it up. I don’t think it will replace my Neve 1073’s for guitars or vocals in rock tracks, or API for snare but it’s fast become my favourite preamp in existence for mixbus and big bold vocals, acoustic guitars etc. it kinda sounds so smooth but you don’t lose any aggression. Plush is the word I’m looking for. Do yourself a favour and get your hands on one to try on mixbus or search for our shootout here on slutz. If you wanted something bitey the summit audio is also unreal.

Yeah just don't use the compressor or eq, I had a 700 for a while and they were a big disappointment.