[ColSaulTigh]

has anyone tried the KR 300bxls ? theyre rated for 15 -24 watts and I was curious if thats an issue?

They run just fine, as do the 520 B v3.

Pic for comparison:

 

[JooLoo]

They run just fine, as do the 520 B v3.

Pic for comparison:

i was not aware 520b existed holy hell

 

[ColSaulTigh]

i was not aware 520b existed holy hell

Then of course there are the Emission Labs 300B Mesh, which also work just fine in the WA5-LE:

 

[George Chronis]

I have an original WA5-LE and running Emission Labs 300B mesh and Emission Labs 5u4g mesh with a variety of drivers like the KenRad VT231, RCA VT231, CKR Smoke glass, Sylvania JAN CHS 6SN7GT. No matter which 6SN7s I use, I get a little audible noise without music playing after about 9:30 on the volume pot. Is this normal? Noise sounds different with different 6SN7s but it's there. I have tried the noise adjustment attenuator and I've set that to where hum is minimum. Any idea if the EMLs are noisy? I was also thinking of trying the Sophia RP II (used to have the RP and I liked them, but can't recall about the noise) along with their 274B Mesh and maybe their blue 6SN7. Any thoughts?

 

[mortcola]

I have an original WA5-LE and running Emission Labs 300B mesh and Emission Labs 5u4g mesh with a variety of drivers like the KenRad VT231, RCA VT231, CKR Smoke glass, Sylvania JAN CHS 6SN7GT. No matter which 6SN7s I use, I get a little audible noise without music playing after about 9:30 on the volume pot. Is this normal? Noise sounds different with different 6SN7s but it's there. I have tried the noise adjustment attenuator and I've set that to where hum is minimum. Any idea if the EMLs are noisy? I was also thinking of trying the Sophia RP II (used to have the RP and I liked them, but can't recall about the noise) along with their 274B Mesh and maybe their blue 6SN7. Any thoughts?

I had a bit of noise with a new [air of Western Electrics -all 1400 bucks worth, in the same amp, although the performance was otherwise what you'd want from those great tubes. Western Electric handled it well, although Woo stepped in quickly, tested the tubes, wrote a confirmatory letter for me, and I received a brand new pair quickly from WE. My original Psvane 300Bs and the WE I ended up with were silent. The WE to this day sound phenomenal and haven't made so much as a quiet sigh.

Never tried the Emission Labs. But I'm curious. And from what you've described, it is most likely those power tubes.

I have had a number of tube amps of different kinds. Every so often some noise artifacts are there, including hum, irrespective of the make or vintage of the tube.

I'm curious how it is esolved....best of luck.

 

[ColSaulTigh]

I'm running Elrogs these days, but I don't remember my EML's being particularly noisy. I get more noise from my NOS driver tubes, but that's to be expected.

 

[fabiocrest]

I tried eml mesh, eat, kr, without any issues. At the moment I’m using takatsuki 300b but I think that this is the definitive setup

 

[George Chronis]

I should clarify “noise” more like hum. Gets stronger as volume increases, same on both channels. The adjustment is to where it’s minimal, but same type of hum as when you adjust the screw to the opposite direction increasing it. Everything else on my rack is off and disconnected from the WA5. It’s not bothering me much since it’s inaudible at listening levels, but wondering if I can do something to improve it. I’m thinking of trying the entire blue/Aqua line from Sophia. Anyone tried those?

Oh, I have a Pontus II feeding the WA5-LE via the SE connection. I have noticed in the past that if I also have the Ferrum Orr connected via the balanced out of the Pontus II, even if it’s off, I get a significant amount of scratching noise every few seconds or a minute, so I always unplug the balanced cables from the DAC.

 

[George Chronis]

Just in case anyone else has similar issues and wondering as they read through these posts: The problem went away. Not sure why or how, but now all my tubes work fine. The only thing I did was I added some Deox and cleaned all contacts of all tubes and the amp sockets very thoroughly. I doubt this did such a good job, though, because it's night and day. I don't hear anything now with any tube up to about 85% of the pot, where that's expected. And even there it's very faint. Before that, I could hear the hum at 30% pot travel. Perhaps there is some sort of AC or EMF noise making device around my house that I have to track down.

Anyway, if it helps someone with a similar issue in the future, you can try Deox, but again, I'd probably try to track down any source of noisy device (electric heaters and the like).

 

[ColSaulTigh]

Just in case anyone else has similar issues and wondering as they read through these posts: The problem went away. Not sure why or how, but now all my tubes work fine. The only thing I did was I added some Deox and cleaned all contacts of all tubes and the amp sockets very thoroughly. I doubt this did such a good job, though, because it's night and day. I don't hear anything now with any tube up to about 85% of the pot, where that's expected. And even there it's very faint. Before that, I could hear the hum at 30% pot travel. Perhaps there is some sort of AC or EMF noise making device around my house that I have to track down.

Anyway, if it helps someone with a similar issue in the future, you can try Deox, but again, I'd probably try to track down any source of noisy device (electric heaters and the like).

You'd be surprised as to what kinds of problems pin crud can cause (or pins themselves, for that matter). I keep a cordless Dremel and some brass wheels at my listening station, and whenever new tubes come in, I give them the once-over with the Dremel and polish off 70+ years of junk.

For particularly noisy tubes (I'm looking at you, Melz), pulling the old solder and reflowing/resoldering the pins works wonders

 

[calieng]

A follow up to the question on XLR vs RCA inputs - there should be a sound difference. The XLR needs to be converted to single ended by an opamp or transformer or the amp is just tapping one pin on the XLR conection.

For Chord DACs definitely use the RCA inputs as they are natively single ended.

For Balanced DACs then it becomes a question of which has the better conversion to single ended....the DAC or the amp? For Denafrips the single ended output is just one pin of the XLR output so half the R-2R ladders are not used....and it does sound worse on every Denafrips model I have heard.

After 30 pages of tube discussion can we briefly discuss inputs and outputs?

 

[George Chronis]

They do touch ever-so-slightly, but with some fancy angling, they can skim by with a sheet of paper's width between them.

As for how they sound, I've only had them a few hours - need some time to evaluate them. They are definitely precise with instrument placement, that's for sure...

Sorry to bring this back from the past. Sophia finally produced another batch of the blue tubes and was considering getting the entire set (power, rectifier and driver). I currently use EML Mesh 300Bs and rectifiers and the occasional NOS 6Sn7 pair (Ken Rad VT-231, RCA brown 5692 etc).

I know you have gone to Elrogs now and you enjoy those. I follow your journey with the WA5. But do you recall the sound of the Sophias especially with the blue 6SN7?

Thank you!

 

[ColSaulTigh]

Sorry to bring this back from the past. Sophia finally produced another batch of the blue tubes and was considering getting the entire set (power, rectifier and driver). I currently use EML Mesh 300Bs and rectifiers and the occasional NOS 6Sn7 pair (Ken Rad VT-231, RCA brown 5692 etc).

I know you have gone to Elrogs now and you enjoy those. I follow your journey with the WA5. But do you recall the sound of the Sophias especially with the blue 6SN7?

Thank you!

I ran them for about 50 hours total (about two weeks worth of listening for me). I found them remarkably unimpressive. I like the Sophia 274B rectifiers (I have clear, not blue). Their 300B Royal Princess (also clear) are horrible. They sound like wind chimes - pinging and dinging and are terribly microphonic. The EML's are far-and-away the better 300B. As for 6SN7's, there are a ton of better options out there (including variants). I'm currently running some Sylvania 6F8G Z0 "Green Leaf" with Woo's 6F8G adapters. Paired with the Elrogs, they're hyper clean and crisp, with just the right amount of oomph without any bloat. They're not as bold as my beloved Melz, but they also didn't cost me an arm-and-a-leg either....

 

[George Chronis]

I ran them for about 50 hours total (about two weeks worth of listening for me). I found them remarkably unimpressive. I like the Sophia 274B rectifiers (I have clear, not blue). Their 300B Royal Princess (also clear) are horrible. They sound like wind chimes - pinging and dinging and are terribly microphonic. The EML's are far-and-away the better 300B. As for 6SN7's, there are a ton of better options out there (including variants). I'm currently running some Sylvania 6F8G Z0 "Green Leaf" with Woo's 6F8G adapters. Paired with the Elrogs, they're hyper clean and crisp, with just the right amount of oomph without any bloat. They're not as bold as my beloved Melz, but they also didn't cost me an arm-and-a-leg either....

Thank you very much!!!

 

[ColSaulTigh]