CLEAN IT UP!!

[sideburns]

I have a quad of JJ KT-77's and JJ ECC83s in my 2 channel DR. How would I make it sound less brittle I guess you could say. Would that be pre or power tubes? Don't get me wrong, I love the overall sound, I just want less harshness in the highs. Here are my settings:

Loop on bypass
Master to start get the speakers moving
Presence-10:00
Bass-11:00
Mid-1:00
Treb-11:00
Gain-1:30

To my ears, it's just not thick enough if that makes any sense. I'd also like it to be a little tighter. Oh and I don have the JJ GZ34's also. I still have the stock mesa tubes but I didn't know if it was bad to run those with the JJ power tubes. Thanks.

 

[Platypus]

how loud are you running it just for curiosity, you might not be getting enough power tube distortion to even out some of the harshness of the preamp. If this isn't the case I apologize but figured I'd suggest it.

 

[stokes]

Years ago I had a similar problem whith my IIC+.Put in some new tubes and the amp became very harsh and brittle.Different set of tubes that drew a little more current cured it.I then put a bias pot in it and in the last 20 yrs I havent had a problem with any tubes I ever used.Did it sound better before the JJ tubes?If so maybe you ned what was in there before.

 

[sideburns]

Platypus, no worries. I am at around 9:00 - 10:00 on the master with the loop bypassed. It's getting the power tube distortion I can tell. Also could be speakers I dunno.

Stokes, it sounded worse before the JJ tubes. I just had the stock Mesa tubes in before. I guess I could try preamp tubes. Does anyone know the stages of them for a 2 channel dual rec? Any info helps. Thanks for the repies!

 

[Platypus]

Platypus, no worries. I am at around 9:00 - 10:00 on the master with the loop bypassed. It's getting the power tube distortion I can tell. Also could be speakers I dunno.

Stokes, it sounded worse before the JJ tubes. I just had the stock Mesa tubes in before. I guess I could try preamp tubes. Does anyone know the stages of them for a 2 channel dual rec? Any info helps. Thanks for the repies!

Just for grins, try running it at 11 o clock.. I've found 11 to be the perfect mix between pre and post amp distortion on the recto series, I used to run my recto at 9 and it was super harsh to me, ymmv!

 

[stokes]

I like to be able to adjust the bias a little hotter than the range the Mesa tubes and Gt's and JJ's fall into with that fixed non-adjustable scheme. You could maybe try to use a tube that breaks up a little sooner,but that can get expensive.The preamp tubes would be a good place to try different tubes but again it gets expensive.The few times I tried a DR I didnt like them because I found them to be as you describe-very brittle.They werent my amps so I couldnt open them up and do any mods,but I know with my amp the adjustable bias pot has been great.I've used many different tubes in that amp over the years and never had a set of tubes I couldnt get a good sound out of, both NOS and current production.

 

[sideburns]

Platypus, do you mean loop bypassed and run master at 11:00 or loop active and run active master at 11:00?

 

[Platypus]

Platypus, do you mean loop bypassed and run master at 11:00 or loop active and run active master at 11:00?

Loop bypassed at 11 on the channel master.

 

[sideburns]

Yeah, sounds great like that, it almost blows the pants off! :shock: I think I may have fixed it. I cloned red(modern) to vintage and that warmed it up quite a bit! Is this a common thing to do does anyone know? Thanks for all the help.