Fireblade
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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. A.L.Tennyson
Posts: 1046
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I wonder if there's some consensus from Mini Torii owners regarding a specific type within the 12Au7 ... 12Av7 driver family that may seem to be more favorable to the sound in the Mini.
Reason I ask, is tube-rolling the driver is pivotal in fine-tuning the amp, but it gets too complicated (too many possible options) without some threshold rule of thumb to narrow the choices down to, say, a single type.
If such rule were to exist, one would only need to try for brand and sub-types within that particular type only, whether it is 12Au7 or 12AT7 (IMHO, going to 12AX7 or 12AV7 would not be intuitive choices in the Mini given wider specs differences.)
There have been just a few reports on useful driver types for the Mini in this forum, from which it would seem as if both 12Au7 and 12At7 types could work, provided one is lucky enough to find the right synergies in a few attempts.
This is why I find it would be very useful to ID some trends, because as we all know, one tube may work wonders in somebody else's system, but not necessarily in ours. The trial-and-error is thus unavoidable.
IMHO, if one could nail a reasonably synergistic driver choice, most other tubes in the complement would most likely align themselves to this influence, at least in a small amp like the Mini, with only one driver per channel.
I've personally found huge differences between an RCA 5963 and a Brimar 12AT7, so far my only two choices. I guess it boils down to asking those who have tried many more alternatives.
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