Well that went well....not
Started warming up the new Dutch valves then promptly caught flu for a week. Blocked up ears and elephant stampede on head effect.
First listening post germs was stunning compared to the original EH tubes. The sound was clean, the soundstage was massive in comparison and the transparency was in a different league. So far so good. However on extended listening I felt the female vocals especially has a prominance and felt a bit thin. This seemed to be common through the upper mid / low treble and drew attention to it. Sax had a great rasping edge but didn't have as much body as I would have liked. The other downside of the Amperex was the significant increase in surface niose (on vinyl) - something I just don't like.
Luckily I had some Tesla E88CCs to swap in and although they didn't have the massive sound stage, clarity or transparency of the Amperex, they sounded richer and gave a lower vinyl surface noise.
I'm still keen to try out some Mitchum made GB 2493 Mullards as they are said to be the richest sounding tubes around so I'm on the hunt....finding matched quads isn't going to easy, especially at a reasonable price.....
Thanks Paul for the Twitter advice re Graaf :) I guess I thought they were a bit moribund. Their curious new ss GM400 amp (anyone heard it?) seems to be on a totally new web site and the old site hasn't been updated at all
Cheers Mark
The Sonus Fabers grew a little and then some...
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...pse89vshfi.jpg
When I said I was nearly there - I think i really meant to say I had a little way to go...
The Graaf I sadly said farewell to (swapped for a Radikal) and replaced with the muscle bound McIntosh MA2275. Then added a MC152 for more power...Oh and the CDS2 and Elipsa Auditors had to go to Ebay heaven....:( sorry guys...
I have a horrible feeling this post will come out in the wrong order in the thread..apologies if it does