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Matsushita / National PCC88 / 7DJ8 Gold Grade / No Cryo Reviews

4.6 Rating 83 Reviews
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Great tube. I replaced a set of four USN Amperex tubes in my Manley Chinook. The Matsushita are well balanced and deeply musical. Not to mention they are deathly quite. Highly recommended.
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Posted 2 years ago
Michael Campbell
Unverified Reviewer
These replaced some ifi 6922's (which are actually converted GE5670's) in my Schiit Mjolnir 2. The only negative is that these don't have the pleasing tube glow of the ifi's. You can barely tell these are powered up, two tiny little dots of orange per tube. The positive is that they sound considerably better. In comparison the old tubes sound somewhat "smeared" or like they've gotten lazy. To be fair, I've had them for several years and it's possible that they've lost their oomph since they were new. But the bottom line is that my amp now sounds like it's been revived, and isn't that exactly what you want from "new" tubes? For the record, I bought tubes graded "Kevin's Stash" and did get the cryo treatment.
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Posted 2 years ago
The Telefunken tubes I have in my pre must have went bad. I decided to try these because Uncle Kevin thinks they kick ass and yup...they are! Works just fine in my heavily modified pre amp. Super happy with my purchase. I just unstalled them and I'm playing music right now and without much warm up, I can really hear no big difference from these and my Funkin's. Seems to have a nice midrange. Thanks Uncle Kevin!! BTW: I went with "Kevin's Stash / Cyro"
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Posted 2 years ago
Bruce Belcher
Unverified Reviewer
I replaced the stock tubes on my Audio Research PH3 phono preamp. That is the preamp connected to the turntable that I use for 78s (I have another turntable/phono preamp for LPs). I was mildly impressed at first, but things got a lot better after about 20 hours of use. Most of my 78s are blues and jazz from the 1920's and 1930's, but I also listen to classical 78s from 1900 - 1920. The sound is more detailed and it's more musical with these tubes. The timbre is well defined so I hear each instrument even though the records are in mono. I also found that the music sounded much more real when I switched my Primaluna Dialogue 6 Amps into triode mode. This is the first time that triode has ever sounded better than ultralinear. These tubes really brought my 80 and 90 year old records to life.
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Posted 3 years ago
This tube is very neutral , it have A greate sond stage,Whit distinctive layers. Humain voice Male and femmel are extremely Présent.
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Posted 3 years ago
I like this tube a lot in my Woo Audio WA2. First off, it will sound much more natural and present a much more holographic image than your run-of-the-mill EH 6922's. With that said, the tube is very different from some of the more prestigious NOS tubes from Amperex or Siemens. The difference, as I can hear it, is that this tube focuses on mid and low end nuance. It's a totally different way of hearing your music if your system focuses on mids and highs for its special sound. If your amp's bass is deep but not natural sounding (i.e. like solid state amp), then this tube could fix that and present a lot of detail and space for the mids and lows (especially) to expand (great for heavy rock music). Also, these tubes are more relaxed than current production tubes and Amperex NOS tubes. If your amp is too forward, too bright or giving you fatigue over long listening sessions this tube could help tame that harshness. Of course these differences are also trade-offs for certain desirable aspects. This tube doesn't do anything special for my high end. It doesn't harm it, but it doesn't give me much airiness, sparkle or separation to my highs. Finally, due to the relaxed nature of this tube, in an already relaxed setup, it could veil your music or muddle the image so pair it with other tubes accordingly. And enjoy the music!
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Posted 3 years ago
Christopher Ulrich
Verified Reviewer
Author didn't leave any comments.
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Posted 3 years ago
Really nice tube! I'm using it with my Schiit Vali 2. This may be my end game tube with this little headphone amp (depending on which headphones I use of coarse)! Highly recommended, worth the money!
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Posted 3 years ago