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Valves for Shanling CD T80

hermit

hermit

Aye, right.
I'm new to valves and find that I'm tempted to change the valves on my Shanling CD T80 on the basis that NOS tubes are meant to sound better in general than modern equivalents. A search of the net has thrown up Western Electric 396A as a safe recommendation but I can't find a matched pair at the minute.

There are matched pairs of these equivalent valves available:

TUNG SOL - 2C51-5670
Ericsson 396A
General Electric - JAN 5670 W GE (396A 6N3 2C51)
6N3P-DR 6H3P 2C51 5670 Hi-Fi SUPERTUBE
6N3P-EV Reflector

Does anyone have any thoughts on these or perhaps any other suggestions? many thanks in advance
 
It might be worth asking in the classic forum as well, as I think more of the tube-rolling guys tend to hang out there. DIY here is a bit more oriented to sand (silicon) and sawdust than vaccuum.
 
When I had one I changed them to Nos RCA 5670 that were recommended in a Hi Fi World review.
Got them from the Pacific Valve Co.
 
A friend who lives in Germany told me that the German importer of Shangling used to swap and sell the machines /amps with German make tubes. I think they were Siemens the ones I saw in his apartment in Berlin.
 
If you want a much bigger upgrade then consider running the output direct from the valves so removing the op -amps from the signal path.;)
Colin at Chevron Audio can do this for you.
 
many thanks for the suggestions. I did manage to find a matched pair of NOS WE 396A boxed so I've gone for those. Thanks for recommending the chevron upgrade muzzer. I am interested in keeping this cd player in the long term and hope to do the chevron audio upgrade at some future point but I probably would want to upgrade my speakers first. I thought that new valves might offer a worthwhile improvement at an affordable cost just now. Did you get this upgrade done and how would you rate it?
 
I did have it done and it was a nice improvement in my opinion giving a much more natural sweet sound well worth the money. Mine also had a Chevron Audio upgraded clock fitted by its previous owner.
 
Thanks for the endorsement muzzer - it really does sound worthwhile. Having had an old NAD cd player transformed by a trichord clock, I would be really tempted to do both the clock and op-amp to valve mods to the shanling. I can see this being the first stage in my next round of upgrading :)
 
I tried various valves in mine with very little improvement in the sound.
I never liked the sound of this player.Shrill and dry like most CD players I suppose.It was a big disappointment.You can do a lot better.
I sold mine to a friend who bypassed the valve output stage and found it sounded better that way.
Adding a cheap DAC like the excellent small Giga Works DAC would be a better way of spending similar amounts money and should give a signifigant improvement in sound.
 
Hmm
I would not describe the sound as shrill but mine did have a better clock fitted, the valve output mod does bring a nice upgrade in sound.
The old saying is the best op-amp is no op-amp;)
 
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