Ok, I have now done careful comparison between a pair of matched JAN/Philips(stock valves), JJ Electronic and a pair of Mullards which I received from Sean at highendaudio on Wednesday. First off, I have to say I don't agree with all the negative attention the stock JAN/Philips valves have got. They do sound really bright at first. But after letting them burn in for a good amount of time, they get better. The guy that sold me the x-can told me it would take about 30 hours to burn them in completely. Which is not true at all. It took about 2 weeks or more for mine to start sounding good. They still are a bit too bright for my taste though.
Now moving on to the Mullards. The first thing I noticed was the incredible detail these valves produced. I heard sounds in the music I've never noticed before. A nice experience.. Knowing almost every last detail of some songs you have heard so often, and then suddenly you start to notice new sounds and more depth (I had a big grin on my face the whole time
).
My first impression of the Mullard valves were, just a little bit too bright. Not as the JAN/Philips, but still just a little bit too bright for my taste. And the bass wasn't as "deep" as I wanted.. But this would all change, ppl who say that valves don't need proper "burn-in-time" don't know what a dramatic change some valves go trough. The Mullards went from being a pretty good sounding valve to a incredible sounding valve!!! I've never heard anything sound so good in my whole life (I'm sure there are more expensive stuff that sounds better.. But this is the best sounding equipment I've ever heard in my life time). Finally! A comfortable sound, after letting the Mullard valves burn in for about 5 days.
It's weird, after listening to the stock JAN/Philips valves for weeks, You start to memorize where the music gets uncomfortable.. And some times with the Mullards you sort of prepare yourself for a sharp "bright" sound.. But instead you get a nicely controlled, smooth, very detailed sound. I love it!
Even at lower volumes, you hear incredible detail and also the bass is nice and tight... This is a bit of a problem with the JAN/Philips valves.To get the nice detailed and bass filled sound, you need to turn the volume up to higher levels. And because of the "brightness" which some times drives in like a spear to your brain (at higher volumes).. Listening will some times have to be cut short. This is even a bigger problem with the JJ Electronic valves.. Since they produce the least detail and bass of all the three different valves. I found myself turning up the volume knob way too high, just to hear the detail and bass I wanted. I ended up having a strange "ringing" noise in my head after a couple of hours of listening
. Reminded me of my early teenage years when I listen to heavy metal music at very high volumes through cheap stereo equipment
.
