My objective is to duplicate the sound of a good jazz venue as best I can. I'll never match it but getting close is fine. I've had various audio components through the years and tubes particularly DHT tubes/ASSET have gotten me the closest. So this is where I will settle down and appreciate.
Balanced AC power is fantastic !! 1800va balanced isolation transformer/conditioner. All aspects of music reproduction are improved for every single component.
Tripoint Tripoint Troy.
A wonderful grounding box component. When added to my system it increased the sense of natural sound quality and emotional engagement. The Troy has a humanistic and “soulful “ quality to it.
Coincident Speaker Tech Total eclipse 2
This wonderful speaker is transparent,open and involving. It`s large yet completely disappears as the source of sound within the room. Very easy to drive,94db and 14 0hm impedance (Minimum 10 ohm). I replaced the stock Solens capacitor with the Duelund CAST in the crossover.
Coincident Statement linestage
Superb performance. In my opinion , a masterpiece by Israel Blume. As would be expected, a wonderful match with its sibling the Frankenstein MK II.
Coincident Speaker Tech Frankenstein mark 2
A terrific 300b SET amplifier that is the foundation of my system. The EML XLS 300b tubes are a superb match with this amplifier.
Acquiring these 300b SET mono blocks changed the course of my music listening experience. They elevated the emotional engagement, tactility and “breath of life “ realism.
Yamamoto YDA-01
Wonderful music lover's DAC that has a very natural/organic sound quality. Duelund CAST addition(output coupling capacitors) makes it sound even better. It has a very minimalist circuit/design that was implemented well.
Ocellia Silver Reference IC
Very natural and pure sounding with excellent tone and timbre preservation.
Ocellia Silver Reference Speaker Cable
Same qualities/ comments as the IC.
Star Sound Technologies Sistrum Apprentice component platforms..
These Star Sound platforms are mandatory in my system. Effectively managing resonance and vibration leads to a very noticeable sound improvement with every component and especially the speakers. Excellent product.
High Fidelity CT1 Ultimate Digital cable
A highly impressive digital cable that mates beautifully into my system. Contributes to the natural sound presentation.
Pro-Ject Audio Systems CD Box RS2T
This is a superb Redbook CD playback transport. It’s both high resolution and impressively natural.
. I’m using the excellent Fidelizer Nikola II LPS. Splendid pairing.
Lavricables Grand and Master series Power Cables.
Pure silver wire and unshielded power cables. These are used with all of my audio components. They are very open, transparent, high resolution with beautiful natural tone and timbre presentation.
Abbas Esoteric Audio 3.2SE
Built by renown Ukrainian Abbas Zulfugarov. NOS DAC utilizing the classic Phillips TDA 1541 multi bit chip. Two 6080 tubes in the analog stage. 5 various rectifier tubes in the power supplies.
3 separate toroidal transformers (And 2 chokes ) for the power supplies.A very serious and successful upper tier DAC implementation. Using with the Abbas SPDIF and power cable.
Brett, I don't know if they're the same tube or not. Vaic did make several 300b variants, the 32b is a large tube with thick glass and is a drop in replacement electrically speaking.
1markr, The more I listen to the AVVT 32b the more I've come to genuinely admire its beautifully natural sound. If you ever buy a second pair of 300b tubes I believe you'll love the pedigree related EML XLS. When did you discover SET and high efficiency speakers? I'm listening to Russell Malone with Kenny Barron right now and I'm in musical heaven. Charles,
I'd like to recommend to anyone who uses a 300b amplifier to seriously consider the AVVT 32B SL tube if you happen to come across a pair(out of production). It's a direct replacement and is sonically very much similar to the brilliant EML XLS. Since I've acquired the Tripoint Troy these two tube's many attributes seem to have gotten better. Overall exceedingly close to the Takatsuki but with a more robust, larger scale authoritative presentation, yet organic and very nuanced. For their cost they are a true significant value given the performance provided. The AVVT 32b used (hard to find these days) is a spectacular buy and offers ultra long life span (40,000 hours per manufacturer). Charles,
Hi Jeff, That's plausible, however the fact that the sound improved 'significantly' (in one week) would suggest either direction yields good sound, IOW the sound didn't remain bright. On the other hand the Yamamoto DAC improved immediately with the fuse change. Bottom line, all components improved with the better fuses. Charles,
Devilboy, I'll give you my two sense. I think they are directional because when Charles put the fuses in for the first time they were terrible real bright. It took I think a week for them to settle down. It's possible if he reversed the fuse it would have sounded much better from the get go.
Devilboy, I've read that as well regarding direction orientation but haven't done it myself. It's so satisfying as it is I didn't bother with changing the fuse direction. Charles,
Thank you Charles. Did you switch the direction of the fuses at all? a couple of people told me they are directional. They technically "work" both ways but one way sounds better than the other apparently.
Hi Devilboy, I just went with Synergistic Research as word of mouth and the grapevine endorsements were consistently enthusiastic. They have worked out well for me, but other upgrade fuses could be as good for all I know. I assume that they're in the AC path. It goes without saying that this is component and system dependant as far as results are concerned. For whatever reason the improvement was immediate with my DAC but required about a week to sound good in my Coincident components. Charles
Charles, I'm about to replace the stock fuses in my dac and amp. Of all the fuses that have been recommenced to me and have read about, I think I'm going with the Synergistic fuses. Have you compared the SR fuses to any other "boutique" fuses or just the stock? Also, are yours in the signal or AC path?
Grannyring, If you happen to see this post heres a question for you. You mentioned acquiring a 45 SET amp a few months go and I was surprised its 1.5- 2 watts mated well with your speakers. Are you still using it and have you done any modifications to it? I know how adept you are at high level DIY. Charles,
I din't hear back from Sonic Frontiers, so I went ahead and installed the new tubes. As per the instructions, after four hours of use, I will shut the amp down (in about half an hour), and let it cool before turning it on a little later tonight, when I give them a good listen.
I'll give my first impression in the morning tomorrow.
Hi Dan, I just don't believe you'll have any problems with this superb tube. On the other hand the EML 300b mesh plate does have some installation restrictions (amplifier watt dissipation 22- 28 watt limit, my amp dissipates 25 watts for example). I'd like to know your early impressions when you have time. For me they sounded quite good brand new and steadily improved over the following 100 hours or so. Charles,
Thanks for setting me straight on the output power question. Chris Johnson passed my question to his technician, Mike Kerster. I haven't heard back from him yet. I think I will go ahead and install them, if I don't hear back pretty soon.
Brf, I know that Israel Blume (Coincident) discontinued using/offering the KR tubes due to reliability and poor warranty support. He did like the sound of these tubes, now I understand why after listening to them. Charles,
The reason I asked is because KR Audio distribution in the USA is a mess with former distributor(s) suing Czech KR etc. This has caused for both confusion over warrantee and in some instances products that are not current.
Hi Dan, Reading the EML XLS description it clearly states it is a "plug in" replacement and this tube will auto set it self to WE 300 b standard in an amplifier. The 27 watt output is possible under"maxium " load conditions(which isn't recommended). Your output would remain at 9 watts with this tube. I think you'll be happy with this tube in your amp.
Charles, the EML specs page has the output in watts listed as 27 (in a class A amplifier). I know I am showing my ignorance here, but the rated power output for the amp is 9Wpc. Is there a chance these tubes will increase the power output? Or will they make the amp sound a bit more powerful?
9Wpc is working fine, but more would be a nice added bonus.
My buddy jeff (Jwm) was sent a pair of KR 300b tubes to test. After testing them we put them in my Frankenstein and spent time listening and then comparing with my EML XLS tubes. These KR are very good sounding! Compared to the EML the KR is a bit warmer and darker in character with a full tonality and just a bit less high frequency air and sparkle. The overall presentation is quite good and musically involving, it's the antithesis of clinical and sterile. It and the EML are both quite noticeably better sounding than the Sophia Princess mesh tubes I spent much time with last week(Luan thanks for the loan of these Sophias).
The EML in direct comparison is more dynamic, resolved, airy and transparent(yet remarkably organic) KR just "slightly" less so. All things considered I could be very content with this tube. It's capable of communicating the music's emotion to a high degree and has an organic fluidity and flow (definitely not mechanical and stiff). This is an impressively music conveying tube. Charles,
