Tube Lab #18 Russian 6N2P

A First Look at this 6V heated close Substitute for the 12AX7!
Note: You substitute tubes and make amplifier modifications at your own risk.
My Vintage Tube Store: valvesnmore.com/
Link to Blueglows very handy Pinout Guide:
blueglowelectronics.files.wor...

[@cobar5342]

Thank you for this. I use them as 12AX7s via an adaptor They are cheap in Ukraine

[@ctcards2636]

With adaptors or rewiring your tube sockets, these work and sound awesome in my tube guitar amps ;-) Never again will i buy a standard 12ax7. Saving me a lot of money and it sounds wonderful.

[@bevanyoung9222]

A good description of the russian types. Many thanks.

[@inset09]

The video I was expecting. Hard to find good 6n2p videos on the internet. I'm designing studio devices and I'm very interested in using 6n2p reflector. They are cheap (10 times cheaper than a good 12ax7). Now I'm confident.

[@leighdave1]

Nice review I have a homemade dac that uses 6n23p I am rewiring it to run 6n2p to give them a try. 6n23p tubes are really good swgp from mid 70s having the better treble I noticed. Voksof having slightly better bass than reflektor but thats on the 6n23p all my tubes are OTK.

[@indridcold4210]

I just bought my first tube headphone amp Nobsound 6j3 version. It came with a Chinese 6j3 tube in it and sounded very good. Better than just having my hooked up directly to my solid state output. Then I bought a Voschod 6J1p-EV NOS '83 pair of tubes and they sound thin and dry in the midrange. From reading various forums, I had expected them to be better than the 6j3. I have about 40hrs on the Voschod and 20 on the 6j3. In your opinion, will the sound difference between them change much after a few hundred hours? I know both are different than these tubes. But in general I mean. Thinking about trying the Reflector 6j3p-e, or a 6j38p or even a 6j5p. My first project and already I am starting to get the tube rolling bug.

[@tubelab194]

This is a thing with tubes and audio in general, the only way to know for sure, is to try something in your system. Yes doing research, buying from a knowledgeable seller are both smart things to do, But in the end you have to try it for yourself! Sometimes the results are contrary to what you thought, learn from it and move forward - and never stop having fun!

[@indridcold4210]

@@tubelab194 Burn in is not important? That was my original question. Thanks. When I started on my BSEE back in 73, Other than X-ray tubes in my physics class, we learned NOTHING about vacuum tubes as circuit elements. Even though equipment with them was still being made. I have a few projects that will require a ton of study now that I have retired. My father's Dynakit ST70 which hasn't been turned on since he died in 76, and an oddball 8W stereo amp from a company called Calrad(mod SA 30B). As well as two Fisher amps that I bought at hamfests in he early 80s for their power and output transformers. Not to mention that I haven't finished my custom La Scala clones yet.

[@tubelab194]

@@indridcold4210 quick answer is maybe, it all depends, for example I bought some 50 year old power tubes, nos, and when I tested them, some worked fine, others not at all, the seller was familiar with this tube and told me the cathode had not had electricity applied for 50 years, he said leave them on tester for 20 minutes and they'll be back to normal, and he was right. So if a vintage tube that hasn't been operating properly (poor contacts or circuit) may need time for it's cathode to renew. A brand new tube fresh from factory with just a brief burn in and test, should operate near 100% as soon as you apply electricity. Now this is totally a controversial subject, some people swear a burn in is required. I personally test thousands of tubes a year and listen to hundreds in circuit on my own tube gear and I haven't noticed a difference - on the other hand I haven't specifically gone looking for one! One thing I have noticed is whenever you change something in your system, you have to give your ear/brain interface time to adjust and absorb what you are hearing, often what sounded good or bad initially presents totally differently after a wee while of adjusting. So I suggest when trying a new tube, turn the system on in the morning even if you won't listen till later in the day, now if some burn in is required, it's done! Note I never leave my tube gear on when I'm not home - never.

[@mariusbaban6738]

Keep up the good work mate! One question: I have a bunch of 6p24p medium gain double triodes ! Can I use them instead of ecc82? Asking just for specs , not pinouts! Cheers

[@tubelab194]

Thanks for the nice comment. Honestly I've never heard of a 6p24p tube and I know all of the commonly used Russian tubes. What I do in this situation is Google it and failing that put the question to one of my larger tube amp Facebook groups, if they can't help Nobody can!

[@mariusbaban6738]

@@tubelab194 my bad! 6n24p I wanted to say . It sais that can replace ecc84/89 ! I need to drive a push pull 6l6 with them

[@tubelab194]

@@mariusbaban6738 it looks like the ecc84 can be replaced with a 6n14p, which is an equivalent tube, note I don't have any experience with either tube. Googling it is the best I can offer!

[@jvgarand]

I am building a mic pre with those and there is nasty distortion goin on. Running with 300Vdc on the anodes and ac on the fillaments. Tried to ground then unground the pin 9.. nothing. Do you think the dc voltage May be too high?

[@stephenwilliams1854]

Hi. Loving the videos. I have a question about the heaters. I want to use just one side of the tube (one triode) and was wondering how you would wire up the heater for this or is it not possible to have just one of the heaters in operation. Many thanks. Steve.

[@tubelab194]

That is correct, most if not all multiple section tubes only have one set of filament (heater) connections for the entire tube, so if you lamp one section you lamp them all. Now this doesn't affect wiring up half a 6n2p, just choose one triode and wire in circuit as you normally would and leave the other half open.

[@stephenwilliams1854]

@@tubelab194 Would you recommend grounding the other pins to prevent cathode parasitics

[@tubelab194]

@@stephenwilliams1854 what are cathode parasitics? The other triode will lamp, but you aren't connecting anything up to anything so you won't see any electrical activity other than some heat. And one of the great advantages of the 6n2p is the shield between triodes, bringing pin 9 to ground quickly is a good idea.

[@stephenwilliams1854]

@@tubelab194 Sorry.i meant cathode poisoning.

[@soapboxearth2]

Is it only the photon that has the third mica? I've got a bunch, and i thought they were voskod. Some are silver plate, some, grey.

[@tubelab194]

The 3rd mica is a common feature of the mil spec versions and if I remember correctly even the modern New Sensor 12AX7, made in the old Reflector factory in Saratov Russia has a 3rd mica. In most cases the Soviet era tube labels are correct. The later tubes made by New Sensor are not reliable as they used whatever label they thought would sell more tubes including svetlana, mullard, genalex etc.

[@faisalabbas0869]

Sir i have 200aprox or more than 200 tubes wich is mostly ussr tubes. Some mulard and NEC and toshiba.. i need only ussr tubes data can u help about deta?

[@tubelab194]

Data sheets for Soviet era tubes is easily found online with a Google search. At least for the common audio types. Try using the English translation of the Russian cyralic letters as well as the cyralic. In most cases I find the English translation using the English version of the tube. In my store www.valvesnmore.com I list both English and Russian names at the end of each Russian tube listing.

[@YsAbTones]

Do they work with a pins adaptor in guitar amps ? like mesa boogie ?

[@tubelab194]

Probably not, because if an amp is using a 12ax7, it almost certainly is running the filament at 12v. The simplest thing to do, if you have a 6v filament source already (probably you do for the power tubes) is to rewire the socket for the 6n2p. I did this in one of my preamps and start to finish it might have taken 20 minutes.

[@jimcatanzaro7808]

It’s not worth it

[@Dolbytube]

Anobody knows how to add more low tones to 6N2P ? which capacitors are crucial in that case?

[@tubelab194]

The 6n2p will easily pass the full audio frequency band (10hz - 20Khz) and more. Often though the coupling capacitors are sized to cut off the low frequencies, particularly in older equipment. This occurs because not only do coupling capacitors block DC and allow the AC signal to pass, but they also create a high pass filter. A good general value for interstage coupling is 1uF and for the output stage of any preamp 2.2uF. In our Kit Amps we use 1.1uF, which is a much wider audio band pass than is required, but I've always found our bass reproduction to be excellent and part of that is making sure your capacitor has a wide enough bandwidth to ensure all audio frequencies are passing. I learned this design strategy from Paul at PS Audio.

[@Dolbytube]

@@tubelab194 Coupling capacitors,u meant those cathode ones? That Soldano Supercharger G.T.O is missing a little bit of lower tones

[@DeadKoby]

In Russia, Tube chooses YOU.

[@jimcatanzaro7808]

This is not close to a 12ax7 it maybe made close but your circuit design is made for a 12ax7 it’s not worth making a amplifier with this tube when there are thousands of 12ax7s

[@tubelab194]

Yes there are 1000's of 12AX7's but very few quiet good sounding ones and those are crazy expensive. The best reissue is the Genalex Gold Lion and it's expensive - but an excellent sounding tube, as well as low noise.

[@tubelab194]

Actually the prototype phono preamp that I built using the 6N2P as a 12AX7 sub, uses a very old RCA circuit that was originally designed for the 6SL7.

[@jimcatanzaro7808]

@@tubelab194 lol I guess you haven’t used many types in your time just another snake oil bias comment all types of Russian valves are horrible why do you think they lost to the United States they couldn’t keep up with our technology they just copy everything like china

[@jimcatanzaro7808]

@@tubelab194 I would rather just use the 6sl7 iron isn’t cheap anymore if I had a couple output trans I would consider making one I’m more into 50-60s USA designs for hifi not guitar mostly the Williamson design I’m not a communist and like using American parts

[@vrcimino1250]

Buy them from Ukraine they're a good country.

[@user-de2ri5rh1s]

Посмотрите: kzbin.info/www/bejne/naGbn3Z-hdCrbZY и kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6q1o6Gjeqamos0