I need a pair of those Detox tubes, just to pull myself away from those evil heptodes for a few minutes...
I was trying to *not* give early impressions of comparing the Mazda M.B.L.E. and Mullard Blackburn EH90, but I just can't wait that long or for an x0h burn-in. So, yeah, here are a few impressions of these two pairs compared to each other and to the "Haltmens" Haltron 6BE6 that are like the Siemens EK90 -I never got to the point of actually looking for Siemens EH90, going on vacation kind of dropped me from being one of the cool kids around here lol!
- M.B.L.E. EH90 unstrapped: excellent overall, clearly on the UK side of the Euro-Tubiness Continuum (R), ETC for short; very natural with vocals and mid-centric music, almost euphonic at times. Soundstage is appreciably large but not weirdly so, treble and mids have a pleasant tubey warm ring to them, and are very detailed, could use a drier or slightly speedier attack; bass, which I recalled to be thumpy and deep, just doesn't seem to hit that hard listening with my refreshed ears, excellent and just a tad warm. Shortfall of these tubes: not good for anything hard or electronic. Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac or Fiona Apple will sound gorgeous and true-to-life, but any kind of Hot Chip, Daft Punk or whatever hard candy floats your boat just doesn't sit well with these.
- M.B.L.E. EH90 1-7 strapped: excellent overall, very similar to above, noticeably louder, bass possibly lighter (may explain my different impressions from before actually), as good or better than unstrapped; but seems even worse with any non-acoustic music for a strange reason. I would use either setting without worry, so probably unstrapped by safety and laziness.
- "Haltmens" 6BE6 (Siemens EK90, should sound similar to prized Siemens EH90 when unstrapped, as same exact tube essentially) unstrapped: excellent overall, dry and detailed like good tubes should be, excellent treble and micro-detail, very good but not huge soundstage. Bass is very nice but could be a bit more emphasized, dry and thumpy anyway, which is good. Treble is probably what these tubes do best and where the "quality" and toe-tapiness lie; these render upper end detail on well-recorded tracks in an excellent way. Mids are excellent imo, but are, indeed, way over on the sterile side. Now, I don't mind that, because the tubes sound balanced that way, but that does throw them way on the other end, the German end, of the ETC (R) -not as much as, say, Telefunkens, but pretty far imho. These tubes are excellent and a riot to listen to on hard electronic tracks, but become less and less enjoyable the softer your music gets. I remembered these as being more versatile and immediately pleasing than they sound to me now. Note that I did not enjoy these tubes strapped in any way.
- Pope EH90 "Made in Holland" (a lie, they are B coded, so made by Mullard in Blackburn, Mullards basically) unstrapped: excellent, period...? OK, now I have less than 2 hours on these so bear with me; I just don't have the time for marathon burn-in session like everybody else is doing lol. These should have sounded the same as the M.B.L.E EH90 (Philips group, same design with minor differences), but they don't -actually they sound closer to how I remember the M.B.L.E. sounding- and they sound great. Being Mullards, these should have been pinned to the wall on the UK side of the UTC (R), but they aren't, they're actually somewhere in the middle, closer to Holland standards -which is interesting since they're "Made in Holland" and since "Pope" tubes are supposed to be Philips Heerlen overproduction, but nevermind that. These tubes have the same large and realistic soundstage as the Belgians but just sound less "soft and tubey". Treble is and mids are excellent and detailed but never any kind of sibilant and also very natural sounding. Bass is hard-hitting and deep, but it's always a tough call before burn-in; it *seems* like it will be excellent. Anyway, I'll wait the usual 30h to make a call, but these might be the best of three pairs, at least in some regards. They just do all genres well, and that's kind of a necessity for me -I just can't change tubes twice a day everyday, that's just just not how things work.
All three pairs are excellent though, it's just that that last one is showing more promise than other two; It may still not end up being ideal in the end.
