Fririce0003
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2012
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Interesting.
I am not a big fan of Sylvania drivers - to me they are bright, to the point of harshness in some tube combinations. I have tried the TJ Full Music 6SN7 and didn't like that tube much either.
The KR300Bs and TJ Full Music rectifiers I have never heard.
Just my 2 cents, but I think there might be plenty of scope for better glass in the WA5 than the above example. Best combination I have had in mine (waiting on a pair of Elrog 300Bs as I type this) is SERP 300Bs / NU 6F8Gs (tried the TS RP - prefer the NU) / Brimar rectifiers.
Not saying that the stock WA234 won't beat a maxed WA5, just that the tube example above is not taking the WA5 as far as it can go and perhaps there is quite a bit of scope for better glass in the WA5.
I do get what you are saying on the addictive sound. Once you have a tube combination that works for you the hours just float by - the "just one more song" syndrome :wink_face:
The sylvanias can certainly get a tad bright with some combinations, some of the other tubes I've tried in it were SERP's, Sophia 274B mesh, Psvane WE274b's and I've also tried a couple of different driver tubes. At the time I was prioritising speed and detail. The SERP's were lusher but slower, the Psvane rectifiers were a little too dark which smeared the details and the Sophia mesh rectifiers didn't keep up with either.
Unfortunately most of the driver tubes I had at the time were off eBay, so the only good sets I had were sylvania bad boys and chrome domes as well as a set of ken rad vt-231's. So not too much choice there. But I do agree a better choice of driver tubes would've closed the gap a bit, the WA5 does scale wonderfully with better tubes and cables.