The 5 Best Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tubes (2023 reviews)

Date : June 30, 2023
Categories : Guitar Amplifier Tubes

It is important to have the well suited chinese 12ax7 preamp tube. In the following post, we will help you to select the best chinese 12ax7 preamp tubes.

Our review process:

Our Top Picks:

Best Overall:

Buy: JJ electronic Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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Best For voice:

Buy: Kailas accessories Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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Best For Audio:

Buy: Genalex Gold Lion Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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Best For Swedish Chainsaw:

Buy: Genalex Gold Lion Nice Tube

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Best For mic Preamp:

Buy: Tung Sol Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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Best Overall: JJ electronic Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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The tube is a must have accessory for your daily purpose. JJ's have a very distinctive, and, wonderful, musical tone to them. It can be used on avantone and the other chinese c-12 clones and it will double the perfomance. This one is pretty warm, but if you're looking for more headroom go with a lower gain tube. The high frequency's are almost transparent in a good range but with no "ice picking" with a even bottom. The sound gains greater intensity and brightness. The gain is noticeably hotter with these tubes.

Why We Like This:

Punchy, nice low end and sparkly roll off to the highs,pronounced mids
Nice warm tone great for vocals
Good brand reputation

Best For voice: Kailas accessories Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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For a low asking price, kailas accessories chinese 12ax7 preamp tube has managed to overwhelm their customers by packing as many features as they could. These just brought the whole unit alive, gorgeous woody-rich tones, mids and highs are smooth and clear, just beautiful. They increase the low end, take out some of the fizziness in the distortion, and overall sound better. They are also incredibly durable tubes. It is well suited for all types of music and playing styles.

The short plate tubes are better if you have a combo amp as they tend to be less microphonic. It is also highly recommended for studio pre-amps and hi-fi gear. They sound awesome and are probably the best tubes for Marshall's at this time. It cleans are super clean and it is great for bugera amps. It will be a great replacement in any amplifier requiring ecc83 or 12ax7 and many of their variants.

Why We Like This:

An inexpensive way to improve your sound
Good sounding tubes that have a ton of clean
Warm clean tones, nice gritty breakup

Best For Audio: Genalex Gold Lion Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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These are splendid sounding preamp tubes. Though the Tug Sol's is not bad sounding, these are just more detailed, cleaner, better/more detailed bass and still has that amazing tube sound. It will raise the height of the tubes so you can remove the tubes easily. The sound of the Gold Lions is already a significant improvement even with only a couple of hours of break in on them.

They sound better than the stock tubes but the bass is boomy, the highs are slightly lacking but the mids and vocals are more detailed. The product is quality, and the sound of the tubes great. If you want/need hot, these tubes are awesome.

Why We Like This:

Silky smooth, warm and sweet reproduction tubes
Wonderful for upgrading tubes in a phono pre-amp
Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For Swedish Chainsaw: Genalex Gold Lion Nice Tube

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Compared with other tube in this category, the genalex gold lion nice tube has a convenient design. These tubes from Gold Lion are quality made, durable. It has a short plate format for reduced microphonics and has been put through a special selection process to ensure low noise and good balance of gain between the two triode sections. It is made by gold lion and they sound excellent. The mids are warm with very full detail and not over powering.

The Mullard is great but has flubby bass tones when overdriven but the Genalex holds the bass together more firm and dynamic and harmonic with sustain on the high bends and glass slide is fantastic sounding. The way its taming and turning the high frequencies into silk, giving the signal body and accurate bass. It is easy to swap the tube out for comparison.

Why We Like This:

Very quiet with a big sound
Added color and a nice spectrum of tones
Creamy, smooth, presence, powerful, just wonderful in general

Best For mic Preamp: Tung Sol Chinese 12AX7 Preamp Tube

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The Tung-Sol ECC803s is a low noise version of the standard Tung-Sol 12AX. Warm in character with lots of detail, this tube is perfect for any hi-fi or musical instrument amp out there. Compared to Electro-Harmonix, JJ Electronics, and the stock Chinese-manufactured tubes, these just have an unparalleled depth to them. These are some of the best quality tubes you can get for pro-audio.

The original tube sounds good, and the tungsol performs in clarity, warmth, punch, and detail. The tube is quality made and sounds great. These are durable and will enhance your tone. Overall, this tube is such a gorgeous looking tube, and it sounds even better than it looks.

Why We Like This: