bcowen
Headphoneus Supremus
Shhhh
Everything has to be somewhere and at that moment I just needed a place to set it down lol.. My wife has the shop already so I am setting up dual amps to check an 86 Melz against the 63, amps, cables, everything is as identical as I can get it. Source is a Gungnir with some special test tracks where I can concentrate on any portion of the sound spectrum.
I already shared my secret of lighted tubes in a headphone rack with you, you should take that to the grave.
If I look around some more I might find more Melz tubes but I did come across some from 63,69,73, and 86 so I have a small assortment but I will concentrate on 63 and 86 right now. Power tubes will be matched winged C Svetlanas from 1979, and maybe later some Tung Sol 5998's.
Tubes and switch boxes are in place, I may check out the 73's vs the 63 and 86 if I get time.
The bass is a bit more pronounced on the 86 version but a little muddled compared to the 63.IMHO, mids are definitely more pronounced on the 86 as I said earlier. I am monitoring volume levels with meters on each amp to assure all is equal.
I am happy listening to either but side by side there are certainly differences. These are just initial reactions, more testing to follow.
I am picking out things in the 63's I do not hear as well with the 86 version, generally low frequency range.
The 73 is like a cross between the two, I will have to listen to this one more. A test track that is fairly accessible is Daft Punk's Around the World, it is pretty redundant but that is a good thing when you are switching back and forth between tubes.
They are all interesting in their own way but for bass accuracy I would go with the 63, then the 73, and lastly the 86. Mids are more out front in the 86, 73 is more linear like the 63. I can understand anyone loving the Melz from any of those three decades.
73 has much higher bass thump than a 69, about to try a 56 Melz with most of the same parts, just to see where it stacks up.
Ok this tube shows promise but I need to listen to a few more. Bill I may have to send you a 73 and an 80's Melz so you can listen in the Incubus. Also if you have an Melz with the metal top wings, stepped bottom mica but no holes in the plate, let me know, 55,56, and 57 preferably. Bill the 73 and 86 are only loaners, keep that in mind.
No worries. I'll return them promptly. Subjective return terms are always best.
And sorry to say I struck out on the non-hole plate Melz. I have '52's, '54's, 56's and '57's, but none of them have the 1578 features -- all have the plastic mica supports up top and both top and bottom micas are oval. Bummer.
But lo and behold I *did* get this and a Chatham graphite plate today. The Priority Mail box looked like it had been run over by a truck (and probably was), but the tubes seemed to survive the brutality. Both the Tung Sol and the Chatham test quite nicely right at NOS levels and with decently (but not perfectly) balanced triodes. The 3rd tube? Well, the seller DID state it was a freebie which is a good thing as it's pretty close to dead at 250 GM (675 is minimum good on the Hickok for a 6080) and extremely high interelement leakage on both triodes. Have no idea who made it -- only marking on it is "6080WB" up top with a '307' below that (not a valid EIA code). Plates are graphite but totally different shape than the TS and Chatham, and it has dual O getters up top versus the dual D getters in both the TS and Chatham. And no, I haven't listened yet...just got here about an hour ago. Special delivery 4 days late.
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I swear I look up a listing and the price doubles when I click to open it. As if they see me coming... "It's Jedi raise the prices"!
