I have always been curious by what appears to be a wide variety and diversity in the various permutations of the above rectifier tube. They seem to come in all forms of mullards and rebranded mullards as well as philips, with fancy bases and logos and others that are more basic pedestrian looking, all seeming to garner outrageous prices and others being more modest. I have never even bothered to roll or even think about the concept of the rectifier having an impact on the sound signature, probably due to spite. Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.

I've had perfectly good luck with reasonable, non-NOS 5AR4s. But you do have to be aware that with some of the new production stuff that you do run a risk. JJ had a whole batch of bad 5AR4s that when arcy/sparky if run anywhere near their limits.

I've had perfectly good luck with reasonable, non-NOS 5AR4s. But you do have to be aware that with some of the new production stuff that you do run a risk. JJ had a whole batch of bad 5AR4s that when arcy/sparky if run anywhere near their limits.

Ouch - arcy/sparky no goody with headphones and single driver speakers:palm:

It's not that bad really, I had one go boom at CanJam when someone kicked out a plug and the Menace did a couple quick on/off cycles. It is a horrible idea to ever restart a tube rectified amp with hot output tubes.

Well curiosity killed the cat, and I bit on a metal gz34, the price was right and I figured it would be a nice experiment. Have been listening for the past 2 hours and I don't think its a sonic revelation or anything, but it looks nice for sure. Since my moth has the bias volt meters I did observe that the tubes started to bias up sooner than my rca/mullard gz34 (which I am aware is not necessarily a good or bad thing), so it appears on 1st glance the mullard i had in there had a slower startup time. Ah well...

Hrmm on the note of Moth rectifiers.. anyone know anything about 6X4 rectifiers and have any recommendations as far as ones to get? That's apparently what the Balancing Act uses.

replace with a pair of 1n4007 silicon diodes and be done with

replace with a pair of 1n4007 silicon diodes and be done with

There are a couple of solid state rectifier plug in modules for 5ar4 that you can find around the web and bay, but who knows what's inside those little magic boxes.

replace with a pair of 1n4007 silicon diodes and be done with

Heresy!!!! How could for instance Lamm's 100k$ amp be so awesome with mere 1N4007's?

Hrmm on the note of Moth rectifiers.. anyone know anything about 6X4 rectifiers and have any recommendations as far as ones to get? That's apparently what the Balancing Act uses.

Tung Sol 6x4 WAs are a good start