Hi guys,
My very first post on AC, although I’ve lurked for a long time…. I thought some may be interested in my tube rolling experience…. sorry about the length. A special hello to my fellow compatriot Philistine.
I’ve had my beloved MWT for some time now and being relatively new to tubes, kept the stockers for much of this year…. a naive mistake, as I didn’t realize I was giving up so much performance. I found out the stock signal tubes are not too bad, but the basic RCA rectifier only just about makes this thing work…. but not much more…. I always thought some of the music was missing…?
Signal tubes:
I’ve tried the stockers, 6N6P’s and the DR’s.
I found the 6N6P’s were an upgrade from the stockers, sounding quite natural and detailed, if a little bright and lightweight sounding…. good value for money though.
The DR’s overall sounded the best having more body/weight and less glare…. although they do give up a little on transparency and detail. In my system, I also believe they have a very slight overall coloration to them that the other tubes don’t; its difficult to define…. maybe a light watercolor wash of blue/grey…?
Rectifiers:
To try and keep a level playing field, I ordered three pretty NOS Mullard Blackburn’s from the early 60’s…. a GZ34, GZ32 and a GZ37. Two black bases and a brown on the GZ37.
The GZ34 sounded “nice” with good tone, better bass weight and HF extension and much more detail than the stocker…. no comparison in performance; as this was my first rectifier change, I was quite shocked at the difference.
I next tried the GZ32 and found it was even more extended at both ends with more detail/texture and much more holographic than the somewhat two dimensional GZ34…. but unfortunately, it was a little bright in the midrange.
The GZ37 was next and fast became my favorite of the three. It had similar extension at both ends to the GZ32, but improved again in detail with a slightly more holographic 3D soundstage, but a darker perspective. It was nice and neutral in the midrange, but unfortunately did have a slightly lean upper bass.
So…. all very nice tubes and a massive upgrade over the stockers… but still a little compromised.
Enter the EML 5U4G mesh plate. The build quality of this massive tube is flawless and in a completely different class to any other tube I’ve seen…. perceived value is very high; it’s a thing of beauty. I haven’t run this tube for more than around 70 hours yet, but it sounds quite significantly “different” to all the other tubes…. great straight out the box, but appears to be getting slightly more refined with more use.
In conjunction with the DR’s, the first thing that hit me was the soundstage…. I’ve never witnessed such extreme pinpoint imaging before inside a bigger field. Detail, tone and texture is better than all the other tubes with much greater depth perspective and smoothness. Something that took a little getting used to…. the lead singer is presented a little further forward, but the other instruments/backing are much further back; I guess more extreme positional contrast is what I’m talking about. Overall, the clarity is much improved, with the total detail of any instrument/vocalists being available simply by light focus. Another thing this tube does very well is great emphasis on the pace and timing cues…. very musical and foot tapping. Overall, this tube has the best qualities of all the others with none of their shortfalls and significantly improves in many other areas.
So, I’ve ended my search for rectifiers with this EML beauty…. I haven’t compared the MB34 or HW37, but can’t imagine they are better value than this tube? I am extremely happy with the sound of this thing and the system no longer feels compromised to me. Maybe a little gain in transparency could be achieved with different signal tubes as the EML is much smoother, but I tried the 6N6P’s again and it was cleaner, but I lost a little of the pinpoint imaging…. once you’ve had it, its difficult to go back! Sorry if this sounds like an EML advertisement, but I’m really quite excited about the improvement it’s bought to my system…. even my girlfriend instantly noticed the obvious improvement rather than me having to point it out…. you know how that goes…! I believe the turbo bybee is next after Xmas, from what all you guys have said...?
Incidentally, I have absolutely no affiliation or relationship, but my first dealings with George from tubesUSA was a complete pleasure…. great customer service.
