[Franatic]

Wow, do not buy these. Put them in the woo yesterday. Warmed them up for at least half an hour. Half a second of some distortion sound occurred on warm up. I figured no big deal. Sometime within the first half hour the music started making horrible sounds so I quicky turned it off. Reseated everything and tried again. Then it kicked my power amp into protect mode. Pulled out the ez80's immediately and replaced with stock EH I had. Distortion on warm up still there. I got very worried. Replaced all tubes. All is good now.

Seems like they ruined at least one other tube in the chain. I didn't have time to notice if noise was coming out of both speakers. The sound is that horrible loud sound like when you accidentally turn off power amp with preamp still on.

Just felt I needed to give a warning to you guys. This seller gives warranty on tubes, but they're defintely going back.

Damn, that is scary and expensive. Since the rectifier sets the voltages for all the tubes, it can damage them if it's bad. I also received a bad EI EZ80 and it burned white hot and died instantly. Luckily it did not damage anything but itself. I had it replaced and the EIs sounded good but I became a bit wary of them and rolled them out for RFTs, which sounded better....and then Brimar EZ80s which were better still and I've settled on them.  Maybe the EIs aren't such a reliable brand.

 

[billerb1]

Wow, do not buy these. Put them in the woo yesterday. Warmed them up for at least half an hour. Half a second of some distortion sound occurred on warm up. I figured no big deal. Sometime within the first half hour the music started making horrible sounds so I quicky turned it off. Reseated everything and tried again. Then it kicked my power amp into protect mode. Pulled out the ez80's immediately and replaced with stock EH I had. Distortion on warm up still there. I got very worried. Replaced all tubes. All is good now.

Seems like they ruined at least one other tube in the chain. I didn't have time to notice if noise was coming out of both speakers. The sound is that horrible loud sound like when you accidentally turn off power amp with preamp still on.

Just felt I needed to give a warning to you guys. This seller gives warranty on tubes, but they're defintely going back.

Oh my God.  You are going to give my man Mikoss a heart attack.

 

[mikoss]

 
Oh my God.  You are going to give my man Mikoss a heart attack.

lol the price of Brimar EZ80's already has. 

 
My Ei's have been in the WA2 since I got it, so I'm sure they're fine. I would like to find some Brimars though. Like actually find a pair for sale... I can only find singles for a lotta cashola.

 

[billerb1]

  lol the price of Brimar EZ80's already has. 

 
My Ei's have been in the WA2 since I got it, so I'm sure they're fine. I would like to find some Brimars though. Like actually find a pair for sale... I can only find singles for a lotta cashola.

Mike, you might want to check these out.  They look identical to the Brimar EZ81's that I switched to except the "foreign" near the bottom of the tube.  Boxes very similar with all the same numbers.  Can't beat the price.  Take a look...
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311295981639?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[mikoss]

Excellent, thank you!

Anyone interested in these

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=291312525327

 

[billerb1]

...and another thought.  I had the Brimar EZ80's Blackburn made and was using them when I first got my WA2 with the TS5998's.  They sounded great...but then I tried the RFT EZ80's and found them more musical and 'alive' to my ears.  If you haven't tried the RFT's you might...you can always find them dirt cheap.  I do wish I would have held onto the Brimar EZ80's to hear with the TS7236's however.  Win some, lose some.

 

[Franatic]

I rarely see much talk about the rectifiers, as they have the least effect of the 3 types used in the WA2. I found their effects and differences more subtle to detect. As you say Bill, I found the RFT EZ80s to be very musical and seemed to get everything just right. However, I found the Brimar EZ80s to give the most open and detailed sound.
 
I didn't really like the only  EZ81s I tried which were Siemens.  They were the most expensive at $60/pair but they seemed to make the pace of the music too fast and edgy to my ears. So I kind of gave up on the EZ81s. Does the higher current rating affect tube lifespans and what are the general differences between them?? I've only tried one, so my knowledge of the EZ81s is limited.

 

[Behemoth27]

Are these the real deal? Brimar rebranded as Westinghouse? I'm wary of eBay tubes, but 7k feedback is some assurance.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6V4-EZ80-Tube-Brimar-England-NOS-Full-Wave-Rectifier-O-Getter-Woo-WA2-4-Westnghs-/151581723538?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item234af98b92

 

[Franatic]

All the rebranding going on gets hard to keep track of. I have checked the construction of the tube vs my Brimar EZ80s and it looks exactly the same. All the other EZ80s I've seen look different. I think it is very likely a Brimar made one. That being said , the price is high. I recently paid $20 shipped for a Brimar EZ80.

 

[Behemoth27]

Franatic - would you mind letting me know where you got yours from?

 

[Franatic]

  Franatic - would you mind letting me know where you got yours from?

Hey Behemoth,
I got it on ebay a week ago. I was going to get another eventually for a back-up pair. I"ll pm you tonight. You can get this one at cost from me if it helps you put a pair together.

 

[Puzzles]

So I have this 6N1P-E and a Mullard 6080 that occasionally produce a burst of white noise, an unpleasantly loud version of the windows/mac sound that occurs when throwing some file into the trash. It was the first time that I used these particular tubes in the WA2. Does anyone know whether that's normal when they're new and will that noise disappear eventually? Or should I better throw them away?

 

[JohnBal]

  So I have this 6N1P-E and a Mullard 6080 that occasionally produce a burst of white noise, an unpleasantly loud version of the windows/mac sound that occurs when throwing some file into the trash. It was the first time that I used these particular tubes in the WA2. Does anyone know whether that's normal when they're new and will that noise disappear eventually? Or should I better throw them away?

You might want to try making sure the pins are clean. Buff them with fine steel wool or really fine grit sand paper. Make sure all/any debris is removed before you put them back in. Make sure they are seated completely. Give it another try. If they are still making strange noises, I would remove them for fear they may damage something in the Woo or my headphone. Good luck!

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I bought some more EZ80 yesterday, Amperex 1973 tubes, <£7 a tube so these tubes are especially easy to get at low prices, EZ81s perhaps a little more but both are still low price even for the best tubes. Get them while you still can..

 

[Behemoth27]

So I got a pair of RCA 6as7g from a huge tube seller on eBay. (Over 9k feedback). Start warming them up in the woo. I get that same horrible noise as I did with the Ei ez80's. Power amp kicked into protect mode immediately. Pulled them out. Replaced with tung sol 7236. Wa2 warms up just fine. What is going?!

Did I actually damage the wa2 with those ez80's. Something that can't charge up on first power up maybe? I just doubt that I got another pair of bad tubes. Or am I really that unlucky? Is the wa2 sensitive to brand new tubes? Each of the sets was sold as NOS. I don't want to keep troubleshooting if I'm going to do damage.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks