EZ80 shoot-out...
Some time ago i promised a review of couple woo 2 rectifiers. As all wa2 owners know it's hard to find any info on these so the only way to learn something is an old trick that's called "Buy and Try".
For review purposes i decided to use Siemens E88cc/Tungsol 5998 combo for their neutral signature with rest of my gear.
From worst to best place (in my opinion):
10. Mullard made in Blackburn England (Amperex BB) EZ81/6ca4, D getter - THE WORST from the lot, completely lack of punch and dynamics, flat soundstage,makes music lifeless. Very disappointed and complete waste of money (payed 100 bucks for these...). BEWARE!!!.
9. Telefunken EZ80/6v4 small O getter, made in W. Germany - Nice upper frequency, fast/clean but everything below 1khz is simply absent on these tubes, i could not find a good mach with any driver/power tubes i tried (the "best" was with 6as7g RCA with their low mids/upper bass bloat). Any tube below will be a better/cheaper choice.
8. Tungsram EZ80, O getter, made in Hungary - These have a lot of mids/upper bass, high spectrum is recessed but sound isn't dark, they changed my DT880 to Sennheiser HD555 (no kidding), not to much deep bass either and everything lack focus/details, its like listening music from the well. Still liked them more than the two above but maybe its sentimental because HD555 where my first "audiophile" cans.
7. Mullard yelow print EZ80 code +/- made by La Radiotechnique Charters (very often labeled as Valvo), O getter - The most common tube on ebay, now these have nice caramel like mids, highs are present but kind of fuzzy, good punch, soundstage is more on the sides and upfront compared to the rest (trademark of these tubes). But there is one major flaw: lack of deep bass (i think it ends around 50-40hz) so if you don't like/need deep bas (anyone?) then you can try them but in my opinion they're not worth 50 bucks or more (ebay).
6. Siemens EZ80 made in Germany, O getter - These sound kind like upgraded nr.8, there is more highs (it doesn't sound like from the well anymore) but still not enough in my taste, better lows too, everything is fuller and mids are on neutral side with added layer of sugar coating, less focused than nr.7 and below, nice tube but this "sugar coating" its like invisible wall separating me from the music so not much details here (on pair with nr.7). I felt that the sound signature (in mids) doubled Siemens E88cc and 5998 Tungsols (it was better after changing drivers to Amperex orange globe and power tubes to Gec 6as7g so maybe with different combinations of tubes they will mach). Worth checking out.
5. Mullard EZ80 made in Blackburn England, D getter - Now things get interesting, these have the best mids from the lot (caramel like nr.7 but more sweet with a touch of magic),full body sound, soft highs but with great presence, big focused soundstage, a great tonal mach for woo so why 5th place?. Because it lack details and air (only nr.8 and nr.10 was worse it this regard), everything sound smooth and nice but after changing it to anything below you can hear how much music is "covered" by them. If your gear is super detailed and want to tame it then its a great choice but if you want "Mullard kind sound" without drawbacks check nr.1 below.
4. Philips Miinwatt EZ80 made by M.B.L.E Mazda in Bruxelles (code Lxx), D getter - THE warmest and THE slowest of all (paired with 6as7g or 6080 it lack dynamics), sweet highs but cleaner with better definition than above. Very big laid back soundstage but with good details (again better than above tubes), great vocals, bass doesn't have a lot of quantity and punch but goes pretty deep,black background (comparable only to nr.1 and nr.3). Less focused soundstage than nr.5 or nr.7 (similar to nr.6) but for me they're too warm even with Siemens/Tungsol combo. Compared to Mullards they don't cover anything and are great for jazz in my opinion but i don't like warm sound very much. Hard to find.
3. Philips Miinwatt EZ80 made by Phillips Sittard (+xx code), D getter - Sound of these is just like nr.4 above but less warm/more focused, with slightly more details/speed/punch. Recommended.
2. Ei EZ80 made in Yugoslavia, O getter - Surprise yep 2th place i still cant believe that the first rectifiers i bought are almost the best of all. So what they have that other don't?. Best extension from top to bottom, great bass with punch an depth, very detailed, very fast transients, big soundstage,lots of air everywhere, neutral and with drive but not as clean as nr.4, nr.3 and nr.1. For me these tubes sharing similar sound signature with Telefunkens simply blow them out of the water. They're great for someone that think his woo is to laid back and need to bring some drive and speed with warm/slow sources (best mach with my former Dac Valab). But before someone decide to try them i have two pairs of these and to my surprise the second pair sounds much worse than the first, more like the Telefunken but less clean/focused, fuzzy sound, highs are dirty but still better lows than Teles (overall i would put them between nr.8 and nr.7). So if lucky you can get great tubes but if not then well you can leave them for a emergency (they're cheap as dirt so not much money loss).
1. Brimar EZ80 England (labeled SEL Lornez and often labeled as GE), black plate, D getter - THE best of all, almost as detailed as Ei, tonally just like Mullards Blackburn BUT with no veil in mids and highs are the cleanest from all above. Best focused soundstage with great depth. The blackest background and even if they're are slightly dark sounding you can hear natural timbre of all instruments that simply wasn't there with any other rectifier i tried. With Gec's and Semens there my reference combination. They really bring woo to a totally different level. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!.
Well that's all folks. I don't have a gift for writing up reviews but still hope that someone out there will benefit from these information's.
Cheers to you all!
