Tung-Sol 12AX7 / ECC803-S Gold Preamp Vacuum Tube

The Tung-Sol name and trademark have been acquired by the New Sensor Corporation. This new production Tungsol tube is manufactured at their Xpo-Pul factory (also known as Reflektor) in Saratov, Russia. New Sensor is an American corporation and since taking ownership of this factory has been steadily improving the quality of current production tubes. The Tungsol 12AX7/ECC803-S preamp tube has gold plated pins and is low noise and low microphonics. From our review of this tube: "There are only so many ways to describe vacuum tube tone and most have become clichés. The Tung Sol 12AX7 has the gain and drive of a Chinese 12AX7 and the pure tone of a Mullard or Brimar."

According to the manufacturer, this Tungsol 12AX7 is the Ultimate 12AX7. Big, warm, and musical. High Gain, ultra-low microphonics, and superb linearity with a dynamic 3-D sound.

Note to audiophiles: These tubes are great for linestage preamps, but generally not phono stages where a very low noise floor is required.

One other note about the construction of these tubes is they have filaments that are almost completely encased in the plate structure. They don't "light up" brightly when working properly.