Vox AC15 Custom (AC15C1 and AC15C1X) - Premium Package

I put the Premiums in my 2007 AC15 Custom Classic and they sounded absolutely wonderful. Pristine and lively cleans to noon volume and delightful to roaring overdrive past noon. The matched set in my new AC15 C1 breaks up way sooner and lacks any personality whatsoever. Sterile like a SS amp, maybe worse. The overdrive is still very good, but not as good as it used to be, like it's drained of life. I'll be tube rolling some old ones back in with fingers tightly crossed. Given this is my first unhappy experience with thetubestore Premiums after dozens and dozens of great tubes improving my amps, I'll grant a pass. This time.

After reading some rave reviews on here about these tubes I thought it would be worth the risk to splash out and buy a set to see if they lived up to the hype and improved my Vox AC15C1X. Several people with AC series amps had left glowing reviews saying the difference with the preferred series was dramatic and positive.

Frankly, I'm unimpressed, especially for the price. I made recordings and listened to before and afters and I'd hesitate to call it an improvement.

Some things were better - their was certainly more air in the sound which gave a more open hi-fi and detailed sound overall. But some things were worse - the new tubes lacked warmth and sparkle compared to stock, and so things generally just sounded hi fidelity but kind of lifeless and dull.

I think I'm just going to put the stock tubes back in – while these ones don't sound terrible, the sound is uninspiring vs stock. Probably won’t order from tube store again.