Preferred Series 7025 / 12AX7 Preamp Vacuum Tube

Stewart's comment hit it on the head. It's a great sounding tube. The workmanship looks very nice as well. It's warm, woody and has a smooth distortion. Perfect for old Marshalls. I think the Preferred Series 7025 and the Svetlana are the best current production 12AX7's.

The Preferred Series 7025 12AX7 is a great sounding tube.A nice low noise floor ,with excellent gain.A warm woody sound to them ,that you can push to get a great crunch that does not get too harsh.All around Great performer.

I purchased 3 of these on the recommendation from The Tube Store. I originally thought of getting the expensive Northern Electric for V1 and Preferred Series for the rest, but the guy on the phone recommend against that choice for my amp, and instead recommended the Preferred Series for all positions. I was like, "oh really?" He said, "They'll sound great in that amp". He was right!I replaced the stock tubes that were less than 6 mos. old: A Groove Tube 12AX7-R in V1 and two Electro Harmonix 12AX7's in V2 and V3.I did a bunch of test recordings with the old tubes vs. the new, with two different basses. One with humbuckers (Musicman) and one with single coils (Warwick), both trying different playing styles (finger style and slapping).At first I didn't notice much difference, but after playing back the different recordings it became clear the that new Preferred Series tubes sounded MUCH more musical and balanced. I got the definition and clarity in the notes I was desperately looking for! The old GT and EH tubes were just as loud as the new PS tubes, so I didn't "gain" anything there, (pun intended!) but the highs of the GT are noticeably harsher and brittle sounding. The GT had more bottom, but sounded boomy and distorted slightly. The Preferred Series in V1 sounded smoother on top and much tighter and controlled on the bottom! And most importantly the mids were clear and present. The notes had been given character presence. Sweet! Overall a more pleasant and musical sound. Just what I was looking for!There are surely better tubes for more money perhaps, but these did the trick for my aging workhorse of an amp! The SVT-4 Pro is not known for an amazing tone. It was built to be powerful and that's about it. But these tubes really helped to add a better tonal quality to the amp! Highly recommended!

Are you struggling with the question "for a vintage home stereo preamp or amp, are these worth the extra cost?" I was, so I finally bought four to trial. I dropped these into the phono & driver stages of two vintage receivers: 1) a Harman-Kardon TA5000X (same as the HK A500 integrated amp) & 2) a Kenwood KW-60. Sound is SUPERB and exactly as rated in thetubestore's comparison guide: strong and punchy, flat across the sound spectrum, dead quiet, precise at the lowest phono input levels, and nearly zero microphonics even in the phono stage (I tapped each gently with a screwdriver with barely detectable speaker output sound). They replaced original Sylvania/GE 12AX7's and Electro-Harmonix EH-12AX7's and sound similar to the GE's and better to me in gain and clean-solid bass end vs. the EH-12AX7's. YMMV, enjoy the ride, whatever you're listening to!

This tube rocks! A great upgrade to my Jolida Glass FX DACII...form the get go bass, mids and highs are freaking awesome! Highly recommended if you want to save on those expensive 12ax7's.