6DJ8 / ECC88 Amperex - A-frame, dimpled disc getter

The 1970s-vintage Dutch Amperex 6DJ8 A Frame tubes made by Philips of Holland (a completely different company than Phillips of USA; these tubes will NOT sound like the JAN PHILLIPS stuff made for the US Army) are a great bargain in the world of vintage 6DJ8/ECC88 tubes. They have great sonic balance and a terrific, palpable bass response with a well-controlled midrange. The "best of breed" for the NOS Amperex 6DJ8 is of course the 1959-1965 Bugle Boy type -- but these Dutch Amperex A Frame types are made to a slightly tighter specification and thus are more consistent electrically if not QUITE as lush and romantically "musical" as the earlier Bugle Boy Amperex 6DJ8. The A Frame in many ways is every bit as good as the Bugle Boy 6DJ8. The Amperex A Frame 6DJ8s have the Amperex "house sound" of a lively midrange and treble response that has a lot of "air" and extension. The lower mids are just a tiny bit thin as compared to the 1960-1965 "Bugle Boy" Amperex 6DJ8s, but the A Frame tubes tend to have better internal Gm balance and lower microphonics and noise than the earlier tubes. This tube has a fast, articulate, 3-D midrange with great soundstaging. They will often outlast current production Russian or Slovakian tubes by hundreds of hours in many cases, and in ALL CASES will sound much much better than ANY modern production 6DJ8 tube. The Amperex A Frame is great for simple acoustic music, jazz, and female vocal music. It also does quite well with well-recorded pop and rock and roll -- the lively midrange of an A Frame Amperex 6DJ8 will make a Keith Richards riff simply jump out of the loudspeaker and give it an eerie 3-D presence. A Frame 6DJ8s are wonderful in phono preamps. Overall, the A Frame Dutch Amperex 6DJ8 scores about an 87 out of 100 on the all-time wonderfulness scale for 6DJ8s, with D Getter Amperex Bugle Boy 6DJ8s scoring the full 100 points. A Frame 6DJ8s are still around; snap up a pair and they will amaze and please any tube-o-phile.