12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube - Matched Pair

Arrived well packed. Using in a Pro-Ject Tube Box S2. A Pro-Ject Debut Carbon SB. An Ortofon Bronze. All AudioQuest cables. I just put them in and already hearing a more tuby sound. Better detail than the stock tubes. Let me put some time on them to see how they develop.

Really glad I took the plunge on these. I'd rolled through a handful of other 12AX7s in the phono stage of my old Harman Kardon A-300 amplifier -- JJ, Tung Sol, EHX -- and settled on the Tung Sol. And everything sounded PRETTY DARN GOOD. But I kept feeling like something was missing. I couldn't stop tweaking the tone controls and repositioning the speakers ('90s Klipsch Forte II's). Everything sounded fine, better than average, even. But I couldn't help feeling a tiny bit disappointed. It just wasn't quite right yet.So I dropped a little more cash than I normally would on a matched pair of these Gold Lions and BOOM. There it is. These tubes haven't even had a chance to burn in yet and they already sound like a million bucks. No complaints at all. They recovered my missing lows (the bass control is finally set to flat, no boost), sit my mids right where they belong (very natural, neither too brown nor too boxy) and the highs are clean, warm and distinct with no harshness whatsoever. Soundstage is wider and more engaging, even at background listening volume.I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews and opinions before placing my order. A number of easy-to-find reviews online essentially painted the Gold Lions as snake oil, rebranded EHX for three times the price. NOPE! I love EHX. I prefer their tubes in my guitar amplifiers over several other more expensive alternatives. But the I've A/B-ed EHX and Gold Lion back to back in the same amplifier and the new Gold Lion beats a lightly broken-in EHX in this application hands down without even having had a chance to open up a little bit yet. No contest.I am very impressed. Definitely worth the money and I pray they maintain this level of quality until the next time I need a new set of preamp tubes.

Front end tubes in a phono preamp circuit. Astoundingly rich, yet detailed, widened and deepened the soundstage vs very good Tung Sol matched 12ax-7’s. Used in Rogue Ares phono preamp

Sounds great!

MY star rating is ONLY for the tubes themselves. The Genalex 12ax7 tubes are excellent and the price was also very reasonable. Delivery was also very quick. However, this seller apparently has no idea how tubes must be packaged. I have been buying tubes for over twenty years, from many sources. Every other tube or set of tubes I have purchased came in a very heavily cushioned box ten times the size of the tubes included inside. The boxes were completely lined with foam or other soft packaging completely enveloping the tubes for safe shipping. Tubes are very delicate, This is necessary. This seller packaged their tubes, completely unprotected in aa in a plastic bag the same way you would send something unbreakable.

So I wanted to do a few upgrades to my mid tier turn table and decided to get these tubes, and a new cartridge. I haven't installed the cartridge because I wanted to spend some time with these before changing something else. I have to say, bass has tightened up for sure, and is a little more defined and fuller. The clearity has inhanced a bit and the harshness I had before is gone. These are much smoother than the stock tubes that come with my Project Tube Box S2. Now the tubes that comes with this preamp are no joke. They sound just fine, but that's it. Just fine. These Genalex sound really nice! $80 nicer?...... Mmmmmmm yeah? I mean there's a noticable quality difference but I feel $60 would be the sweet spot for these. If you have the cash and obsess like I do then you won't be disappointed!

I hate to say it but they really put some pop in my amps! Wonderful sound although I learned to turn on my phono stage first and off second because of a pop noise generated from my phono pre amp. Yaqin ms23 b from Silk Audio that came with a Tun-sol 12ax7 upgrade is my what comes out of my turntable. the Golden Lyons put a lot of life into it. My amp is a MC100b from Silk Audio. The chinese tubes that came with it were good but one of the KT 88s failed and I started swapping. I won't go down the list but Tung-sol kt120 blew the doors off of all and Tung-sol gives and indefinite life on these tubes. I put Tung-sol 6sn7gtb in for v2. This all smoothe out the Chinese sound a lot but my sound did not really come alive until the Golden Lyons hit the first stage. I am totally pleased. One day I would like to try KT150 for my output but Yaqin was not thrilled with that idea. Yaqin though the KT120 might draw too much power but I have had no problems for the 4 years I have been using them. Take all this advice at your own risk! Enjoy!

Unfortunately , I can’t rate these tubes properly. After I removed my old tube , and placed these in, I heard a buzz and nothing played out of my left channel. I don’t know if it was the tube , or my phono stage just blew at the wrong time. Anyway, it’s a bummer because I always wanted to try these. Sadly, I had to return them.