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.
Other Tung-Sol tubes 
12AX7 TypesAdditional Information and Downloads
Reviews:
12AX7 Tube Review
Tube Matching Information:
Matched Sections Service
Downloads:
Tung-Sol 12AX7 / ECC803-S Gold Datasheet (PDF)
Download Adobe Acrobat PDF reader
Warranty Information and Return Policy
Warranty Period: 3 monthsAll our tubes are guaranteed for 3 months from the date of purchase. (Any exceptions will be noted on that tube's Warranty tab)
If you receive a tube that does not perform to the manufacturer's specifications, please do the following:
- contact us to get a return authorization
- return it via regular mail within 90 days from when we shipped it, and we will provide an exchange or refund of the full purchase price of the tube.
Returns not related to warranty or defect will be considered at our discretion, and are subject to a 15% restocking fee.
We can not accept returns that don't have an authorization, are past 3 month, or are returned improperly.
These guidelines may be updated without notice.
Ratings & Reviews
11 reviews
More tone, less dynamics
by elStevo
I put 3 of these in my Friedman Pink Taco.
Positives: The tone controls came alive with these tubes, especially the mid control. More bass, not muddy at all. Highs are good, not skanky.
Negatives: The amazing dynamics of this amp suffered with the Tung-Sols. Im a medium gain player usually with gain at about 5-6 on this amp. I want some cleanup with soft picking too. These tubes don't have the gain of the stock ARS (Chinese) tubes - I was up to about 7 to get in the ballpark of the stock tubes. At that setting soft picking is still pretty gainy and my R9's volume knob cleanup just wasn't good at all. I put one of the stock ARS tubes back into V1 and the dynamics returned. With the Tung-Sols in 2 and 3 the amp retained some of the extra tonal control and bottom end, so for me, there was some improvement with the mixed set. I just didn't dig it in V1.
A keeper
by B H de C
Installed this tubes on a McIntosh 225 and an Acrosound 20-20. Amazing performance. Super clean sound and more gain than EH and Gold Lions. Those will stay in :)
They're Staying!
by Paddy Mac
I bought a matched trio for my Suhr Badger 35, and they're staying! It's a similar sound to the original JJs, with lots of sparkle, but much more 3D and you can definitely hear the added quality. Pairing them properly with a set of power tubes is more a matter of taste, but they sounded fine with the regular Tungsol EL84s that were in it already. I'm now trying them with a set of Mullard EL84s. I always have a backup set of tubes. This is all in the Suhr 35 watt amp which is my road warrior. It gets banged around when the tubes are still hot and plugged-in while not on standby etc. So the original JJs kind went grainy and crispy and bad for recording. Even if these are not your exact tone, they are a solid backup tube set. They defiantly will keep your boutique amp's original boutique sparkly tone. Now all that said, I'm debating running a whole set of these in my Suhr PT 100. In an amp where there's multiple gain on gain stages you may want a normal power amp tube set, or you'll end up with a really hot screamin' baby. In conclusion, you won't need a hot power tube with these. There's plenty of spank and headroom for single coils, and lots of colour for humbuckers. A very strong bass to build your sound from and worth the money. Pairing these with the regular Tungsol power tubes will give you an amp easy to work with, pairing them with Mullards like I'm trying out is nice too, because you can back off on the volume and tone on the guitar and tame things that way.
Outstanding
by Roy Cox
I just swapped out the regular tungsol preamp tubes for these in my Marshall 1959 slp 100watt and I absolutely love them! I actually prefer them over the Genalex Gold Lions also. Beautiful bottomed, great compressed mids and a smooth top end. An absolutely stellar choice in big iron marshalls as well as orange OR series amp heads. Tungsol preamp tubes have now taken over my amps!
Gold Pins.
by Pat
I put the gold pin TS in V1 of my Blackstar Series One 104 and it made as much improvement as changing the stock tubes to regular TS AX7's. More clarity with the best sounding gain I've ever heard. I hope we don't get into another cold war with Russia because I don't want to have my supply cut off. My ears need the tones………THE TONES!!!!!!!!