Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

I was thinking about the subject for a long time. People in audio love to make generalization, so do I, but in it is not so simple. People attribute to output tubes some “special” qualities but I more interested not about unnecessary drooling about A2 or GM70 tubes but about conditions.  I know people who consider for instance the GM70 is more superior for Sound tube then 6C33C and I know people who went to GM70 and then returned back to 6C33C. After all any tube in any stage will sound as you make it sound. For instance: before the ML2 I did not see any power amp on 6C33C that sounded interesting. Another example: my 6E5P – the driver in the Milq sounds absolutely not interesting with fixed bias and unless the bias supply is not decupled with gas tube.

So, where is the Truth? The Truth is in absence of conviction.  A person takes one amp, for instance an amp with 2A3 and then get better result from another amp: for instants ML3. What does it say about the out tube? Absolutely nothing if the result is not view in context of properly interpreted conditions. I could enumerate a two dozens of conditions why sound with GM70 or with 2A3 would be better or worse. One of the externals factors would be where and how the given SET will be used. Different speaker drivers require different amplification with different ability to instigate transients. We have 6-7 type of alnico magnets and they react differently to different output tube loading.  (I had 12 Vitavox S2 drivers and I have learned that some of them, with different band of Alnico, need different handling in order to act as I needed). If a person have sensitively and sensibility then there area lot of suggestions do not pay attention to rules but to look at the results discrimination. Yes, SS PP amps are crap, but some of them wipe out any, even the best SETs if they drive HF transducers with ceramic magnets….

So, is one tube better then other: it is like a car driving: the horsepower in the engine is hardly meaningful if a driver is Morons. Many years ago a friend of mine, a professional auto racer of very high caliber, when we were driving together demonstrated me how to drive. He was driving no more the 40km/h… but no one was able to pass him. It was extremely fun to watch how a multi-lane road was practically blocked behind our car but at the same time – the friend of mine did virtually nothing that I or anyone else would intermit as “actions”. The very same about the art of playback building: juts dumping a good amplifier and good speaker into the room create a random and not tailored sound. The Real high-end does not stats form equipment but with the different level of seriousness… Retuning back to ML3: this amp is not implementation of seriousness to me. It would be if the ML3 were a DSET for LF and HF. Only then it would be possible to say something objectively about the amp. A single “expensive” SET if juts a paradise for a reviewer but not a tool for demanding users.

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site