JAN Philips 6922: Whoa!

[organ]

I got this tube with my GTA pre back in Dec (Thanks Russ). This is the first tube I tried in it and it was a bad experience. It gave me a headache. The sound was horrible. Too much mids, annoying highs and too much sibilance.

Since then, I've been using a Mullard and GE 6DJ8. They're great sounding tubes. Similar sound but the Mullard is better. It was more lean but had that extra air and 'open sound'. The GE is very warm and enjoyable to listen to.

I tried te JAN Philips a few more times in between but couldn't stand the sound. I hated it.

Then 3 days ago, I popped it back in just for fun. Still, I wasn't impressed. After about 5 hours of use, the sound started to improve. Sibilance was gone and the mids didn't dominate anymore. Now I'm starting to get excited. I left it running last night with full B+ to speed up break in. Now this little sucker sonds nasty! BEAUTIFUL sound! I love it. It's biggest strength is bass and dynamics. Soundstage is very big. I was listening at high spl earlier today and I'm still blown away. I love it when the dynamics build up to a climax and it feels like a speaker driver is about to fly out and hit your in the face. The JAN Philips is one bad ass tube!

Anybody know if the green and blue label JAN Philips is the same? I know the blue label one is made by Amperex. I have the green label.

Maurice

[RuSsMaN]

What year did I send you? If you are still at the same addy, I've got some singles to send you - THIS week.

Tubes need break in too, and the ones I gave you were truely NOS - NEVER installed in ANYTHING.

Cheers,
Russ

[dorokusai]

That's one of my favorite tubes.

[dcarlson]

Cool, I'll keep the Jan/Phillips in mind when I come around to rolling in the Anthem Pre.

[organ]

Russ,
The box says A 3/86. So I'm guessing it was made on the third week of 1986.

Yup, I'm still at the same addy. Did you get my e-mail from last week? I sent you my addy there when you told me you had some singles.

Doro,
It's one of my favorite so far too. The Mullard and GE are really nice with the mids and highs but they're not as dynamic with less bass.

Derick,
There are a few types of JAN Philips out there. tubestore.com is selling the ones with blue lettering. http://www.thetubestore.com/janphilips6922.html I have the green one.

Maurice

[dragon1952]

www.tubedepot.com has them with the green lettering $14.95 ea. That's $3 cheaper than the tube store.

EDIT:
www.boiaudioworks.com has them with the green lettering for $9.50 ea or $23 per closely matched pair. Also $23 per pair matched triode. WTF....which would be best for the ELP design?

[organ]

Just get the matched pair. I doubt you'll hear a difference with the 'matched triode'. The 6DJ8/6922 are essentially two triode tubes in one bottle. Matched triode means that the store have tested the tubes to make sure that each side have close readings. This is something online shops have recently started doing for an extra cost. You can read more about it here... http://www.thetubestore.com/triodematching.html

Maurice

[dragon1952]

Yeah, I'd read that already. Just wondering what everyone else normally gets and if it makes a rats ass. I guess it's like hand selecting perfectly balanced golfballs vs whatever comes in the pack.

[faster100]

I just got a set of Jan sylvania's green print 6dj8's for a whopping 4.99 + ship... sound good.. they all start to sound the same after awhile, unless you get a boogie then you know it sucks...

[dorokusai]

They're always cheap and green or blue, it doesn't matter.

[faster100]

YUP! can't beat it for a good sounding semi vintage tube.. and thier are plenty of the jan 6922/6dj8's available..

[dorokusai]

I stock '68 and early '70....I would consider that vintage....are you talking about the 80's batches? They also have alot of those in 5814(12au7) that are worth having around.

[faster100]

nah 80's tubes... its 2005, its semi vintage imo anymore.. But yeah i amagine 60/70's tubes are much better and are truley vintage...