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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Initial thoughts about new/old Lamm ML2s

Post Subject: It's the Tubes (again), StupidPosted by Paul S on: 1/9/2010

I suppose this further erodes my "credibility" regarding the "tube sockets" hysteria, but it is what it is, so here goes:

Today I finally had the right combination of alone time and motivation (not to mention great electricity) and I got around to swapping out the ribbies (input tubes).

Circling in on this thread, it's been a while since I got the VTA to where it's satisfactory pretty much every side.  During this time I've been brewing a hunch about the input tubes; not just the "crumpled paper" noises, but I was also getting gradually diminishing bass, articulation and clarity, and the harmonics were no longer making up for the losses.

Based on the sense I was developing about the sound, I put the old GE alternates back in, the same tubes that wowed me the first time I tried them, then they seemed to let down, with sadly defficient harmonics. Basically, I was thinking perhaps the "sadly defficient harmonics" might have more to do with the drifting tone arm/VTA and/or BEP than anything else, and I wanted to give this theory a try before I tossed any of my present input tubes.

Results today were interesting (and fun!). I think this is the first time I have thought of instrumental harmonics and a particular sort of "patient" articulation in the same conceptual vein. But this was the case today, with texture somehow an effective part of nice, spike-y treble and acceptable harmonics, too. Bass was as good as I've gotten from my system, just as it was the first time I used these old GEs.

As for the "vintage" 6C33Cs, that's harder to say. I did try them before I swapped the input tubes, and it seemed like they are "tighter", in the audiophile sense, but without the stripping that this usually entails; keepers, but no somersaults. They do seem to be quite well matched with respect to gain, although they were not represented as "matched".

Electricity was fantastic for 3 hours today, and of course this is a big factor; but it was also great last week, with the ribbies still in.

The ever-annoying truth of it is that tubed gear is an ongoing PITA, and the more tubes, the more BS with those tubes.

How funny that some people collect the tubes just to own them, like fetish objects, and some people love just the idea of "tubed gear".  I say it every so often, and it's still true, I would put tubes in the rearview and never look back, and I would go 100% SS if I could figure out how, in terms of sound. Funnier still, there is nothing about the sound I am aiming for that I connect specifically with tubes, per se.

How much are people paying for carefully-matched NOS Telefunken ribbed plate pairs these days? I guess they cost what they cost. New ones work nice in the ML2, but no way I got anywhere near 10,000 hrs. from those tubes.   No way I got 1/2 that. Since I never heard that the ML2 eats its input tubes, I ass-u-me that the particular tubes I bought were either more used than they were represented to be, or they just burned out faster than "specs" said they would.

Oh, well, that's tubes...

Paul S

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