I have used Westinghouse 12ay7 and JAN-GE 6072a both sounded great.
No doubt, but they are spendy & can still be prone to noise sometimes. The discerning Nobsound owner may be more careful with his money!
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When I bought mine nobody was really looking at 12ay7 tubes and the prices were very reasonable.(cheap)
The chap who sold me the board suggested Banzaimusic in Germany for valves. I might get 4 JJs, and 4 TAD High Grade for phono side. The latter are supposedly selected for low noise, though nearly 3 times the price of the basic JJs.
Or is the noise problem hum, and more to do with power supply arrangements?
Some people seemed to have hum issues but I didn’t particularly. It’s just the phono stage that really needs the quietest valves. The line stage isn’t quite so critical.
I did try the Douk recommended power transformer but I had one that failed after a couple of months & then another that went the same way. Odd really because this circuit isn’t really stressing it. I was pondering getting one of these for the next one augmented by a small 12V transformer for the filaments.
It’s also worth incorporating a small choke in the psu if you’ve room. @coco re-simmed the RIAA network arriving at slightly different values to get it more accurate Did you get the switch on an umbilical to engage/disengage the relays?
I have a couple of more boards to build up so may try a very foo-ey one next time.
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Picked up the KJF speakers today, only been playing for an hour but they sound quite good. Think they may need a bit more power than the BP can give as they sound quite tame at the moment.
The guy I got them from has quite an impressive system
Kondo M7 preamp
Living Voice Argento
Kuzma XL Air turntable
Kuzma 4point 14
SPU meister silver cart
Kondo Sfz step up
Living Voice OBX-RW3 speakers
Finally got the Bryston BDA-3 delivered and really liking that. It actually sounds much better using a SBT via spdif than the Roon Rock via USB.
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Laser faff.
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nothing in my house is squared off or symmetrical, it would do my head in to have things lined up and neat
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They aren’t particularly sensitive and like power up em’.
We used them with a big Yamaha studio amp…
Bugger
It’s unlikely I’ll keep them, they were only 5 miles from me and I was curious to try them out. I’m tempted to buy a Sony VFET for them but they’ll only end up sat in the spare room doing nothing.
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They might be over stuffed…
the guy took about 100 grams of stuffing out per speaker as he said they were overstuffed 
It’s currently in a bin liner in the boot of the car.
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Makes a BIG difference. I’m sure the Frugels I owned previously were under stuffed
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If those drivers are the Alpair 10 Gold they are only 88 dB per wotsit.
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Did the police accept his explanation for that 100g hidden in the speakers?
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Trying some new (to me) Heco bookshelfs. Aurora 300. Interesting styling which I’ve now adjusted to. Not on proper stands but working fine.
Usual formula otherwise. Paper cones, soft dome tweeter and decent sensitivity.
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That was a bad idea, my ears are bleeding now.
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