I recently moved to a new house. The new listening room is a combination living/dining room - 20ft x 25ft with sloped ceiling front to back going from 8.5ft to around 10.5ft. Lots of thick carpet. The old house audio room was 11ft x 20ft x 7-8ft, with hard laminate floor, and a big wall of picture windows. So, the new room has a LOT less room reflections to deal with and is much more heavily damped. Needless to say, the system synergy was all wrong for the new house when I set things up.
I've been playing with a lot of system tweaks to try and get things right. But tube swapping on the Big7 was not high on my list - though it absolutely should have been. I had originally leaned quite quickly to 300B tubes in the B7. I hated the stock Psvane 101D from the moment I heard them. Almost sent the Big7 back under the 1 week trial period - but then a buddy brought over some cheap 2A3 and 300B tubes he had as spares on the last day. The 300B's were just right. But what I should have remembered when moving to the new house was how DIFFERENT each of the tubes sounded. Changing tubes on the B7 doesn't just lead to small changes - the sound signature can change quite dramatically.
But, since I'd invested somewhat heavily in some used Takatsuki 300B's, which are known as probably the best new production 300B's out there, and maybe in the same league as the best of all time, I thought anything I would put into the Big7 in the new house would be markedly inferior. WRONG...
Last weekend I swapped in some vintage Sovtek 2A3's and RCA Cunningham 45's, as well as giving those stock Psvane 101D's another listen.
With the Tak's, I had been battling a sound that was just too thick in the midrange, a bit bloated in the bass, and didn't have the attack/transients, or high frequency extension to really open up the sound and engage the listener. It had really excellent soundstage depth, but the thickness and bloatedness, and lack of attack just made everything sound like the music was not as immediately there - like you were sitting way in back of the hall.
The 2A3's brought some better balance to the sound, more control in the bass, a bit more attack, and a slight bit more high frequency extension. A bit more "there". You could hear it wasn't as good of a tube as the Tak's, a certain kind of refined detail was missing, and a touch of a kind of harshness that you know a higher quality tube would do away with. But the overall sonic signature was a better fit with the room.
The 45's brought even more balance, with more control in the bass, even more attack, good high frequency extension, and awesome soundstage depth to boot. And a bit higher quality tube than the Sovteks.
The stock Psvane 101D's, really lit things up in terms of upper midrange attack and high frequency extension. At the expense of some of the balance, and with a very forward dynamic sound that removed that soundstage depth from the 45's. But a bit of a brittle sound, and strident enough to be fatiguing.
So, the 45's were the best fit of all these sonic signatures. I'm really curious what a higher quality 101D would do in my system, knowing that the stock Psvane's are not at all the the same league. Maybe a Psvane Replica 101D would do it for me. But those KR 242's or PX4's do sound really interesting to try. But then again, going with some new production 45's might be interesting as well - I've read a little bit saying the EML 45's are as good or better than any vintage 45's.
Do any of you guys have any thoughts on the options given what I've said about my impressions above? I don't think I'm going to be able to afford more than one of these sets of tubes in the near future.
***P.S. I don't want any of the above to be interpreted that I think the Takatsuki 300B is not as good as these cheaper tubes. Completely on the contrary. In my other room, I listened to all these same tubes. And also several other pairs of 300B's, including some NOS AVVT's and Genalex. The Tak's were heads above the other 300B's in refinement, and also quite a bit higher quality and more refined than the 45's, 2A3's, and 6A3's I tried. It's just that the 300B sound in the new room is much better damped and also has some bass modes that still need to be tamed. The 300B sound turns to thick with not enough higher frequency energy to energize the room. In the old room, I needed a bit of that bass roundness and midrange richness to counteract an otherwise bright room. Very different situation here - the exact opposite in fact.
