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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Single-stage Melquiades vs. DHT amps
Post Subject: Emission Labs 2A3Posted by drdna on: 1/13/2009
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 Romy the Cat wrote:
BTW, I run today the Chinese 2A3 and they were  much better then Sovtek tube, much-much better, in fact I was very surprise how bad the Sovtek were.
Having received a bunch of tubes, I have spent some time listening. Tubes have gone up in price a lot in the last ten years! I will preface this by saying listening was done with FM, vinyl, and CD's. I listened, and I also had my girlfriend listen. This is important because she is a professional musician, and we listened to some of her CD's. I know what she sounds like, I was there at the recording sessions, and I spent many hours listening to the tracks over and over during mixing and mastering. This gives me an advantage, so that I can truly see what changes connect me to the original musical composition and performance on many levels.

So this is what I had on hand:

The Sovtek 2A3 was probably the worst. The sound was congested with a spatial constriction and a dull and sluggish presentation. The sounds were very uninvolving and overall I wanted to turn off the music.

The Chinese 2A3 is what I had originally in the amplifier. Brighter, but also more grating, more fatiguing. The sound is quite dry, and there are issues with microphonics. Nice enough but unrevealing. Lacks detail and has an unnatural feel. Nice stereo sound, but not the Sound.

The Emission Labs mesh plate 2A3 is in a separate universe than the other tubes. There is no comparison. Much much better! The music comes alive and is liquid and involving. There is a dramatic increase in inner detail and a reduction in noise. The tubes are built like a tank by the way. Excellent timbre with much better highs and lows. Much improved frequency extension. Really wonderful. However, there is something not quite right. It sounds better than I remember the recording session. It is like coming home to find a cake you baked, and you are sure you did not put frosting on it, but now it has frosting. My girlfriend confirmed this (and this is all double blind FYI). She said it sounded like a more perfect polished recording of the sessions, not like the actual sessions. There is an added Koetsu-like glaze over the music. Everything is sweet and wonderful, candy-like, concupiscent. But it is not really a true connection to the composition. It is like a siren song. I have no doubt a lot of people will go ga-ga over this tube, the same that love the Koetsu cartridges. Wonderful but not neutral and not true to the Sound.

On an even higher level are the KR 2A3 and the Sophia Mesh tube. These are the pinnacle for 2A3's, but I have not yet finished my listening, so this will be in the next post.

Adrian

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