[Rossliew]

Great news indeed!

 

[wrathofkhan]

Thanks everyone! I've been in touch with Addicted to Audio and they do ship to NZ! And best thing, they have a black BHSE in Stock! Will be paying for it soon.

Yep, Thats where I got my one from in December last year. Great company to deal with. I am in Perth, WA. What Price are you paying for it.
I was lucky like you as I did not really want to wait AND with the Alps RK50 which was perfect.
Has this one got the Alps RK50?.

 

[DrLunaDjangoRex]

Yep, Thats where I got my one from in December last year. Great company to deal with. I am in Perth, WA. What Price are you paying for it.
I was lucky like you as I did not really want to wait AND with the Alps RK50 which was perfect.
Has this one got the Alps RK50?.

Yeah, they're really good. Getting a black one with Alps RK50. They got back to me straight away with a quote. Price is NZD 16.4K including the Stax Sr-009. This doesn't include import tax and GST.
Can't wait for it! I'm just messing around with the Hugo 2 right now and can't wait to pair this with the Stax/BHSE combo.

 

[wrathofkhan]

Yeah, they're really good. Getting a black one with Alps RK50. They got back to me straight away with a quote. Price is NZD 16.4K including the Stax Sr-009. This doesn't include import tax and GST.
Can't wait for it! I'm just messing around with the Hugo 2 right now and can't wait to pair this with the Stax/BHSE combo.

Exactly the combination that I have and I just love mine. The detail and musicality is absolutely amazing.
As a source I use the Sony HAP-z1es which is just perfect as is stores all my CDs, DSDs and hi rez Albums and outputs in DSD.

Lets us know how you get on.

 

[Rossliew]

Envy you chaps who have access to A2A. Nothing much of that sort here in Malaysia. I did have a chance to audition the BHSE at their Melbourne store a couple of years back and it was the blue faceplate one - what a beauty!

 

[wrathofkhan]

Having had my BHSE for over 10 months I would like to get some NOS Mullards xf1 - xf4. Obviously these will be quite expensive so I would like to ask here the following:-
1, I live in Australia but I guess the purchase would be international,,, where is the BEST both reliable and honest to place my order especially if one or more is faulty.?
2, Whilst I have looked on the utube to see how to bias in the tubes is it absolutely necessary - bit worried that I may cause damage.?
3, When putting in these NOS Mullards would damage be caused to the BHSE if one of them was faulty?

Thank you all for your advice

 

[paradoxper]

Evatco, The Valve Store, Tube Audio are all in Australia.

 

[wrathofkhan]

Evatco, The Valve Store, Tube Audio are all in Australia.

Thank you for that but on their website they do not stock NOS EL34.
They do have "EL34 Mullard – Copy of the XF2 Mullard EL34 of the 60’s. The best current production EL34 available."

I wonder how better they will perform against what Justin supplies with the BHSE. As they are Mullard too they are probably the same. Any chance if Justin could comment,,, pretty please.

 

[paradoxper]

There are tons of places to try: Tubedepot, Tubemuseum, Audio Tubes. Just crawl Google.

 

[TheAttorney]

Thank you for that but on their website they do not stock NOS EL34.
They do have "EL34 Mullard – Copy of the XF2 Mullard EL34 of the 60’s. The best current production EL34 available."
I wonder how better they will perform against what Justin supplies with the BHSE. As they are Mullard too they are probably the same. Any chance if Justin could comment,,, pretty please.

The Russian new production Mullard replicas in the BHSE are nothing at all like the vintage originals, apart from the name and possibly a vague approximation of design. IMO the best new production tubes for the BHSE are still the Mesa Boogies (also Russian made). This is based on extrapolating the reviews by Golfnutz, me and others in this thread.

But tube branding has always been confusing. My vintage Dutch XF4's are branded "Mullard", but they were actually made in Holland (by Sittard/Philips) and are very different (most say superior) to the later Mullard XF4's made in Blackburn England.

The term "NOS" is often used rather loosely, but I prefer to be more specific:
It is very rare now to get true NOS versions of the classic vintage tubes. And matched pairs and quads just about impossible. 99% of the sought after vintage tubes will be used (second hand). The only alleged exceptions I've come across recently are TubeDepot's Metal Base tubes (at only $599 each!), and David1961's Blackburn XF3/4's from a UK supplier (can't remember which one).

But this isn't necessarily a problem because it's the condition and measurements that count, not whether they've been stored in a box for decades. All things being equal, NOS should be a better bet, but things are rarely all equal, so no guarantees either way.

So, your list of Mullard XF1 to XF4 is not as simple as it seems. The XF1's are so rare now that I've never seen a quality matched pair advertised, let alone a quad. So why bother when the less-rare Metal Bases sound so good. Mullard Blackburn cut costs with their later XF3/4 versions (e.g. stapled rather than welded parts). Some say this reduced SQ and reliability. Some say they're just as good as the older versions. I haven't tried them, but I remember David being very happy with his (compared to new production).

Back to your earlier questions:

I've found Tubeworldexpress has the widest selection of vintage EL34's, often in matched pairs. I've never bought from them because in the meantime I've always managed to find suitable matched quads from German sellers via Ebay (and from a head-fier in one case). Yes, such sales are always a risk, but all of my purchases turned out to be fine and just as advertised. If a tube fails, I would imagine the faff required to get the supplier to do something about it is not worth it - especially if from abroad - and this is whether or not the supplier will even care to support you (how do they know you haven't done something stupid, or if the amp was to blame?). So I treat it as pot luck, but it's worked fine in all cases bar the well documented Psavane Metal Base replicas (which are nothing like the originals that I can see).

"Biasing" the BHSE is a term also used rather loosely. The external Balance/Offset adjustments are easy to do. With all the new and vintage tubes I've had, it was not necessary to change these settings, but I would strongly recommend you get a multimeter anyway - for peace of mind (and if you're OCD like me that likes to get the measurements as close to zero as possible). You can get a cheap multimeter for less than the price of a single vintage tube, so it's a no brainer.

Tubes can fail in different ways. Some failures will do no harm, but some may take out part of the amp (only from what I've read as I've not experienced it myself with any of my tube amps. I would hope that the two BHSE output fuses will help here in some circumstances). In my case, the only tubes that ever gave me any trouble were the Psavane replicas and, in both cases, the faulty tube gave plenty of warning that something was wrong, so I switched off the amp pulled out the suspect tube before it totally failed. But in general, I've read that the BHSE is kind to tubes (soft start and doesn't run them at full power), so in most cases, most tubes should last for "years and years" as spritzer once said.

 

[wrathofkhan]

The Russian new production Mullard replicas in the BHSE are nothing at all like the vintage originals, apart from the name and possibly a vague approximation of design. IMO the best new production tubes for the BHSE are still the Mesa Boogies (also Russian made). This is based on extrapolating the reviews by Golfnutz, me and others in this thread.

But tube branding has always been confusing. My vintage Dutch XF4's are branded "Mullard", but they were actually made in Holland (by Sittard/Philips) and are very different (most say superior) to the later Mullard XF4's made in Blackburn England.

The term "NOS" is often used rather loosely, but I prefer to be more specific:
It is very rare now to get true NOS versions of the classic vintage tubes. And matched pairs and quads just about impossible. 99% of the sought after vintage tubes will be used (second hand). The only alleged exceptions I've come across recently are TubeDepot's Metal Base tubes (at only $599 each!), and David1961's Blackburn XF3/4's from a UK supplier (can't remember which one).

But this isn't necessarily a problem because it's the condition and measurements that count, not whether they've been stored in a box for decades. All things being equal, NOS should be a better bet, but things are rarely all equal, so no guarantees either way.

So, your list of Mullard XF1 to XF4 is not as simple as it seems. The XF1's are so rare now that I've never seen a quality matched pair advertised, let alone a quad. So why bother when the less-rare Metal Bases sound so good. Mullard Blackburn cut costs with their later XF3/4 versions (e.g. stapled rather than welded parts). Some say this reduced SQ and reliability. Some say they're just as good as the older versions. I haven't tried them, but I remember David being very happy with his (compared to new production).

Back to your earlier questions:

I've found Tubeworldexpress has the widest selection of vintage EL34's, often in matched pairs. I've never bought from them because in the meantime I've always managed to find suitable matched quads from German sellers via Ebay (and from a head-fier in one case). Yes, such sales are always a risk, but all of my purchases turned out to be fine and just as advertised. If a tube fails, I would imagine the faff required to get the supplier to do something about it is not worth it - especially if from abroad - and this is whether or not the supplier will even care to support you (how do they know you haven't done something stupid, or if the amp was to blame?). So I treat it as pot luck, but it's worked fine in all cases bar the well documented Psavane Metal Base replicas (which are nothing like the originals that I can see).

"Biasing" the BHSE is a term also used rather loosely. The external Balance/Offset adjustments are easy to do. With all the new and vintage tubes I've had, it was not necessary to change these settings, but I would strongly recommend you get a multimeter anyway - for peace of mind (and if you're OCD like me that likes to get the measurements as close to zero as possible). You can get a cheap multimeter for less than the price of a single vintage tube, so it's a no brainer.

Tubes can fail in different ways. Some failures will do no harm, but some may take out part of the amp (only from what I've read as I've not experienced it myself with any of my tube amps. I would hope that the two BHSE output fuses will help here in some circumstances). In my case, the only tubes that ever gave me any trouble were the Psavane replicas and, in both cases, the faulty tube gave plenty of warning that something was wrong, so I switched off the amp pulled out the suspect tube before it totally failed. But in general, I've read that the BHSE is kind to tubes (soft start and doesn't run them at full power), so in most cases, most tubes should last for "years and years" as spritzer once said.

Thank you so much for your well explained and detailed answer to my questions which has helped me immensely to approach what my concerns were.
It would seem that the NOS approach is perhaps not the best for me as not only are they going to be ex used, probably not a true matched pair let alone a matched quad and no real guarantee.

You mentioned the Mesa Boogie which I find that I can buy these locally in Perth Western Australia at https://eav.com.au/shop/mesa-el34-str-447-power-tube-duet/
Are these the ones you are referring to.?
How do these compare with the stock Mullards that Justin supplies with the BHSE and in conjunction with the Stax 009 I find they are a little bass shy, with the mid & top very detailed and sounds really nice.

I guess what I am trying to get to with getting new tubes is improved bass but also a more musical, lush and beautiful mid & top. Maybe somewhat euphonic, magical etc.if that is possible.
What I am trying to say is the sound I have now is fantastically beautiful BUT can it get even better with other tubes. Will the Mesa boogie take me to the next level that I am seeking?.

 

[TheAttorney]

If you want euphonic, magical, lush etc then you have to go vintage. Sorry, that's how it is.
A while back, I posted a league table of all the tubes I've tried. You can find it with the search function probably as quickly as I.

But we are talking incremental differences here. If you heard the bottom of the table (stock tubes) against top of the table (vintage metal base) at a headfi meet, of maybe even at home in a quick A/B session. it's unlikely you'll spot the difference, or even if you did, you may not think the differences are worth the price. Under those sorts of conditions, a BHSE with any tube sounds like a BHSE. The differences come to you (or me at least) when you get used to the sound of a particular tube over a period of time, then swapping the tube makes an incremental, but for me very worthwhile difference - because the lower performing tubes have a sort of upper-mid/treble haze (as well as loss of clarity and detail) that I can no longer put up with once a better tube has pointed that out. YMMV.

The Mesa Boogie has a very clear, clean and punchy sound compared to stock. I much prefer it and would simply not go back to stock, but the MB is not particularly lush, although it does lose much of that upper-mid haze of the lower placed tubes. As I've mentioned before, the MBs are graded for "strength". White is strongest, but I've never come across this grade. Blue is next (and what I have), so ensure your supplier has one of these colours. There are two other grades which are less strong. These tubes are aimed at the electric guitar market and the less strong tubes will distort earlier - which may be exactly the kind of sound that a rock god guitarist wants, so there is no good and bad grade in the guitar world. But in hifi, the strongest (which I understand to mean the highest plate current) is best.

Edit: Yes, that link is the model I'm talking about

 

[Ali-Pacha]

Do approve the Mesa Boogie Blu, an excellent choice I made after reading @TheAttorney ranking. Not that lush but with still some mellowness in the mids, keeping the BHSE abaility to calm down upper mids harshness, very dynamics and punchy, especially in the bass area. My Shuguang Treasures may be a bit more refined, but sound thin and not as exciting as the MB.

Ali

 

[bmichels]

I do not consider "upgrading" my BHSE's tube anymore. I prefer to save for the next to come " all tube " amp from HeadAmp....

 

[1note]

if you own the house there are solutions for this problem.

if you don't own the house there are different solutions to the problem.

Hi Kevin,

I would be most grateful if you could elaborate. While I own my own dwelling, it is a relatively small apartment so I cannot install very large equipment.

Many thanks.