Good stuff, siles; nice choice of tubes at any rate!
I'm actually back to using my Tele/vanias (R), 1-7 strapped at the moment. Great tubes, for sure, much more mellow and large-soundstaged than the even more recent offerings.
I kind of got annoyed at my latest pairs of tubes last night... Basically,
none of them sounded right to me at this point (I'll take this chance to mention that I was
not intoxicated or otherwise impaired at the time, just a usual business day evening lol); NONE of them! I'm not sure whether some tubes evolved a bit after the burn-in period, or if part of the "magic" wore off, but these tubes just weren't working for me... They haven't been since I came back from vacation actually.
The "Haltmens" (R) -Haltron 6BE6 that look like Siemens tubes but should have been made by Toshiba (as people say on Facebook about relationships: "it's complicated"), while very nicely detailed, just lack any sort of warmth, and not just in the midrange. They simply don't allow me to enjoy my music that much, at least non-electronic genres. That's unstrapped mind you.
The Belgian M.B.L.E. EH90 are still warm and cozy but probably too much so, and lack the neutrality and absolute detail I seek in good tubes. At least, they're pleasant, but they
may or
might not quite be over the "best in class" line.
The Mullard Blackburn EH90 seemed like they had the most potential in the bunch -and they do, no doubt about that- but again, they just don't give me the same listening pleasure as other tubes... Too dry? Maybe. Too balanced? Not so sure about that. Too detailed? Actually, not
that detailed, but more than enough. Basically, the toe-tapping factor just isn't there with these; at least it hasn't been for the last few days I was using them. It might come back to them at a later time, but for now, I need to go "back to basics" as gibosi did with the 6485 and 8425A tubes.
(For the last two tubes, my remarks apply both to unstrapped and 1-7 strapped settings; 1-7 setting just being even thinner and less toe-tapping, but having other advantages)
So, I went back to my latest "milestone" tube, and that was the Tele/vania -Sylvania- 5915/EH900S. And I'm glad I did, these are still fine tubes -and much more easygoing than the Siemens derivatives above.
At first, these 5915 seemed a bit tame compared to the recent tubes, but they are every bit as detailed -and probably more so given that much is spread over a huge yet natural soundstage- and qualitative. Again, that soundstage will make even the most closed headphones sound large and deep without taking intelligibility away. Treble is noticeably softer -in a good way- than the tubes above, mids are finally
alive and musical, while bass is OK but not best in class. That was unstrapped mind you. 1-7 strapped, things tighten up quite a bit; enough that some acoustic tracks start sounding thin -the 1-7 curse!- but still nicer for most musical genres as the tubes are made more dynamic. These do have quite a bit less gain than other heptodes; enough that on some applications, I need to go over the 12 o'clock point on the volume pot, which I do not like to do.
So yes, if you see where I'm going with this, even the strapped 5915, while easygoing, are still not quite perfect and balanced imho. In fact, I'm starting to realize that none of my recent heptodes sound truly toe-tapping, detailed
& balanced; none of them. And that's a bit of pickle, as far as I'm concerned, as I just can't trade musicality for detail or technical specs. The same thing happened -granted tenfold- with most triodes I tested.
I may temporarily try and go back to pentodes -dual control or not- if only to remember just what it is I was looking for in terms of sound quality and musicality.
Has
anyone else had a similar experience with
some heptodes, strapped or not? I'm kind of interested now.
