REVIEW: Decware Select Zen CSP2 Tube Headphone Amp - Page 29

You guessed it. The starved filaments will reduce heat, increase life and increase even order harmonics.
Yup, I just sold the Taboo 2 weeks ago.

That guy Yen was banned under similiar name on  ebay for taking lots of money and not delivering the goods. I would only buy the golden lion 6922 fro m Jim Mcshane in Chicago he matches and test better than anyone. Mine are stikll good two and half years later and dead quiet.

Two of them are fine. I sent the dead one back and he said he was sending a replacement. We'll see.

I carried out a rectifier shootout on my CSP2+.

 

All the following rectifier tubes were burned in for >24 hrs each

 

1. RCA – JAN 5R4GY 2x "D" Getter Black Plates (1950s or earlier ??)

2. Philips 5R4GYS Grey Plates Round Dimple Getter (1970s)

3. Brimar 5R4GY 2x "D" Getter Black Plates (1950s)

 

and compared against my default rectifier

4. Tung Sol 5Y3GT Black Plates "D" Getter (1950s).

 

My CSP2+ uses the following default tubes

 

2x Siemens E188CC Grey Shields for the L/R position

1x Amperex *USA Pinched Waist "D" Getter for the input position.

 

My Audio Chain is as follows :-

 

Oppo BDP 95 > Soundsilver Symmetry RCA Cables > CSP2+ > Beyerdynamic DT880 600 Ohms

 

This audio shootout is based on headphone usage so YMMV if you are using your CSP2+ as a preamp.

 

1. RCA - JAN 5R4GY 2x "D" Getter Black Plates (1950s or earlier ??)

This contributes to the largest soundstage of all the rectifiers.

The spatial height dimension is most pronounced here.

 

Mids are neutral, so if you like a neutral sound and use your CSP2 as a preamp, this might be your ticket.

 

Bass is not boomy but is impactful and tight.

Drums have elastic quality.

 

Instrument separation is excellent (the best of this lot) and very distinct.

 

Nice Airy sound to Cello strings.

 

2. Philips 5R4GYS Grey Plates Round Dimple Getter (1970s)

This is the rectifier tube according to Kevin Deal of Upscale audio.

 

Compared with the neutral RCA tube above, the mids now have a very wonderful dose of tube warmth added to them.

The mids are so organic that many users are likely to get audio orgasms from using this rectifier.

This is one of those tubes for female vocals which help convey emotion and draw the listener into the music.

I can thus understand why so many positive reviews have been posted on Kevin Deal's website.

 

Instrumental strings have a very nice airy reverberation.

 

Instrument separation is good but not as distinct as the above-mentioned RCA rectifier. This is just a minor quibble.

 

Bass is impactful, tight and not too boomy.

 

3. Brimar 5R4GY 2x "D" Getter Black Plates (1950s) Made in UK

Short history lesson here.

There are 2 Great ones in the tube rectifier world.

(a) WE 274B

(b) GEC/Marconi U52

 

The Brimar 5R4GY has earned (not just from me) itself a rather legendary reputation where tube rectifiers are concerned.

Yes, this is one of those tubes which can be mentioned in the same breath as the above 2.

(and YES, in case you are wondering, the Mullard GZ34s are over-rated and over priced....but that is another story ;)

 

Ok. History lesson over.

 

Back to this tube.

 

If you thought the mids of the Philips 5R4GYS were really organic and wonderful in a tube warmth kind of way, then the mids from the Brimar tube are really to die for.

This is where the Brimar rectifier earns its reputation for being WE 274b "like".

 

Bass sounds from this tube is the most "3D" like with Depth, Width and Height. Drums are not just a simple "thumph" but have tone as well!

 

The tonality (especially string instruments) from this tube is the most realistic sounding.

 

Instrument separation is good but not as distinct as the above-mentioned RCA rectifier. This is just a minor quibble.

 

Bass is impactful, tight and not too boomy.

 

 

4. Tung Sol 5Y3GT Black Plates "D" Getter (1950s)

The CSP2+ was designed to use 5Y3 rectifiers.

 

No surprises that in my system, the already highly rated Tung Sol sounds just as good as the Brimar rectifier in almost every department.

 

The Tung Sol rectifier does lose out to the RCA rectifier in terms of soundstage though, especially in the relative lack of height.

 

Ermm, what I'm trying to say is that before you rush out to grab that Brimar 5R4GY rectifier for your CSP2, you can get most of the sonics from using a humble Tung Sol 5Y3 instead.

 

However, the mids of the the Brimar are still the best organic sounding of all the rectifiers I tested.

 

Epilogue a.k.a Rectifier Shootout #2

I have another (non Decware) SE EL34 based tube amp for my speaker setup which is designed around the 5U4 rectifier.

 

After the rectifier shoot-out in the CSP2+, I carried out a similar one for my speaker amp.

 

For that other shootout, the Brimar rectifier totally obliterated the competition.

Every other member in my family literally asked me what I did to my audio system to make it sound so organic and rich and inject a hypnotic presence to the sound.

 

The mids from the Philips 5R4GY still sounded warm and organic.

This is consistent with the tons of accolades from Kevin Deal's customers who have used the Philips 5R4 on external speaker amps.

 

However, the Brimar takes the mids to a whole different higher level, into the Stratosphere of the legendary WE 274B and GEC U52 but without the cost!

 

So if you have a speaker amp which uses the 5U4, the Brimar 5R4GY is highly recommended. The next best thing would probably be a Philips 5R4GY from Kevin Deal.

Very nice Lord Soth! Looks like the Brimar is tough to find. Naturally...

 

So far I am enjoying my Jan Sylvania 5U4G....Great to have some choices.

Hi longbowbbs,

The brimar valve shows up regularly on EBay UK.

I picked up a couple of NOS tested ones from various UK sellers.

The British seem to have lots of those hidden in their garage. LOL

Likewise for the GEC U52 and Mullard GZ34 which are currently over-inflated in prices.

The Brimar rectifier is still available for reasonable prices at less than US$80 if you are lucky.

Thanks Lord Soth! I will expand my e-bay search to the UK. Love the garage comment. I am waiting for the Storage Wars TV show to show someone buying a sight unseen storage unit full of valves and they have no idea what to do with them...

you can buy them on ebay from langrex in the UK. 107.00 US

Thanks Frank!

 

Do they have the correct vintage?

 

(asking, because Langrex date codes are 1970's manufacture)

Edited by Nick Dangerous - 11/11/12 at 9:59pm

shoot them an email

I forgot to post these here....

 

BTW, Group buy for the 596 in the Woo Forum led by Silent One.....

 

 

 

In their original boxes...

I bought an adapter from 2359Glenn to convert from the quad to Octal pin settings. It works great.

The sale of the USAF-596 rectifiers just went final!

 

0545 hours PST.

Edited by Silent One - 12/23/12 at 5:54am