I have confirmation that MSUR did alter the design of the earpads. They no longer have the inner-foam ring. All N650's sold now, will have the new earpads. I have never heard them with the pads with the foam-plugs, but the with the 'new' pads, they sound ezxcellent. Very balanced sound, with a...

I don't think you got a fake. I recentely ordered a N-650 using a very reliable seller, and I got the same ones as you have. I think they altered the earcup design. There is no foam 'plug' on the inside of the earcups anymore. When I first put them on, they also sounded a bit on the el-cheapo...

I've recently ordered some Mullard EL360's. From reading the datasheets they should also be a drop-in replacement. I'll try them when they are deliverd and will post the results. If the EL360 indeed proves to be a drop-in replacement, then there are various European and American equivalents...

It is a bit of a kick. And the answer has been floating around in other topics. But to round this one up: Direct drop-in replacement for the 6P13P is the Russian 6P13S Lot of them around on E-bay for next to nothing. They give a noticable improvement over the 6P13S. For the driver-side, a...

As far as I know, there are a few versions of this amp. There is also a version which uses KT88 tubes instead of the 6P13P tubes. Maybe there is also a version which accepts EL34 tubes. Then again, maybe yours had been rewired to accept EL34. That modification is not very to difficult to...

For anyone still interested: Direct (drop-in) replacement for the Chinese 6P13P, is the Russian 6P13S (Russian font: 6n13c). I've got the little chinese amp featured at the start of this post and have used the Russian replacement with succes. You can get them dirt-cheap on E-Bay. They do give...