All our preamp tubes are stringently tested for noise and microphonics using Amplitrex testers driving an external amp. There is no extra charge for low noise and microphonics testing like with other tube vendors. Additionally the tubes undergo a battery of tests for basic performance characteristics and faults such as: Emissions, Transconductance, H-K and Grid leakage, etc... If a tube does not pass our strict performance criteria it's tossed or sent back to JJ Electronic for evaluation.
The Gold Pin JJ ECC83MG is based on the same construction as the original JJ ECC83MG. The internal components go through additional selection and processing during assembly. After working directly with these tubes we can confirm they do test more consistently and sound noticeably different than the original JJ ECC83MG.
The JJ ECC83S MG utilizes a medium length ribbed plate design that is much like the old Amperex and Brimar European designs. Sonically it’s nice and thick sounding with a good edge that’s not brittle. It has a bold character with a fair amount of harmonic density but remains very open sounding whether played clean or overdriven. The ECC83MG is a little more polite than the JJ ECC83S which is pretty aggressive. Tonally it fits very nicely right between the JJ ECC83S and JJ ECC803S.
It has plenty of definition even when used in an amp with lots of gain and the microphonics are very low
