Hi everyone
This is my first contribution to this list although I have been lurking around for quite some time. I regularly read this
thread and have picked up some very good advice from it - so now I felt it was time to make a contribution myself.
I have lived with the MW transporter for nine months now, but haven't engaged in any serious tube rolling yet. Partly this is due to the fact that I have been extremely happy with the sound in my current set-up. What I have installed right now is the familiar gz32 and the not so familiar 6N6P. I want to suggest this dirt-cheap Russian tube as a possible substitute for the 6H30P-DR. For a read-up on the 6N6P you shold visit the site of Lukasz Fikus, a Czech who is a warm supporter of the tube and obviously know a thing or two about valve amplification:
http://www.lampizator.eu/UPGRADE/upgrade%20noval%20tubes%20to%206H6P.html He even claims that it betters the 6H30P "supertube". I can't testify to that because I haven't rolled in the 6H30P-DR myself yet, but I can say that after dropping in the 6N6P the sound from the transporter was elevated to a (for me) unknown level of musicality (and I have heard some quite exsotic rigs). And that is from a tube which I bought eight of for 20$ on ebay!
It could of course be the result of system synergy, but I really believe that this tube is something special.
I will of course try out the 6H30P-DR eventually, but now I have been on a shopping spree for rectifiers and severel are on their way. This includes a mullard gz34 (late 1950s with D-getter, but with black base), mullard CV378 (also late 1950s with D-getter), a new production Emission Labs 5U4G-Mesh and a mullard metal base gz34. The most interesting comparison will be between the EML and the mullard metal base. I have read that at least one owner of a really nice Woo headphone amp prefer the EML over the metal base gz34.
Since I have been able to snag a metal base gz34 on ebay for a reasonable price I will no longer be watching this auction, but maybe it could be of interest to som other transporter-fella or girl:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170264776096&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatchingI have no affiliation with the seller of course
thalvor