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anonymous 1 July 2005

Again I can't find the referring topic, but I read on here that a user replaced the tube in his CAD mic with a nice Groove Tubes tube, and that he was saving up for a Telefunken NOS.

Is this wise? Is it worth it? I have a CAD VSM-1, and I like it a lot, but if replacing the stock tube means that I have a vastly improved mic, I'll spend $50-75 to do it.

For that matter, is that a good practice all around? If I have mid-level tube preamps, would it be good to replace their tubes with better ones? Mostly, I need to know about the CAD mic, however. I'd like any and all relevant opinions, please.

Thanks in advance,

Fred auf der Rockwells
Migrant Records

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sdelsolray Fri, 07/01/2005 - 12:54

I have a CAD VX2, which shares a similar head amp design with the VSM. In addition, the capsule used in the VSM is identical to one of the two capsules that comes with a VX2. What is clearly different is the output area of the two mics, the VSM having solid state, and the VX2 have another tube stage using a pair of nickel wound output transformers.

I changed the two tubes in my VX2. The head amp uses a 12AX7 (so does the VSM). I chose a Valvo NOS tube made by Siemens. I also swapped out the 12AU7 output/line driver tube for a Telefunken smooth plate.

There's a noticable difference in the sound of the VX2 now, for the better. It's a bit smoother (it's very smooth to begin with) and a bit tighter in the lower mids. All in all, the differences are subtle at best, but I like it better with the NOS tubes.

Hope that helps.

moonbaby Mon, 07/04/2005 - 04:18

TornadoTed:
A 12AT7 is a similar tube to the 12AX7, but with less gain. While the operating voltages of some mics let you play with tube choices, I don't know that the SolidTube does. A tube with less gain can, in some mics, sound better for the reasons that Jonyoung stated.
BTW, I have heard rumours that the tube in a SolidTube was actually soldered into place! Is that true?

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