[phchin]

Hi., thanks to all of you, I received WA7TP and WA7d today with my JAN and cleartops sitting in my desk already. I cannot understand why as you mentiioned, there is a big difference as I changed from the origin tubes to JAN and then to RCA cleartops. We are not rolling the amp tubes but the Power tubes. Totally worth the price of the RCA!

 

[jeff119]

Just received my Sylvania JAN 5814A.
Initial Impression : OMG. My Setup SOUND IS A LOT BETTER. Music sounds much fuller, bass much better. A bit more details. Music are more enjoyable, reminds me of my TF10.
It also tamed the brightness of the HD700.

 

[frankrondaniel]

  Just received my Sylvania JAN 5814A.
Initial Impression : OMG. My Setup SOUND IS A LOT BETTER. Music sounds much fuller, bass much better. A bit more details. Music are more enjoyable, reminds me of my TF10.
It also tamed the brightness of the HD700.

I have the same experience with the Sylvania's.  That's been my usual tube for the TP.  Just recently gave the RCA Cleartops a try.  Initial impression - definitely not as happy with them (w/HD800's).  More airy sound, with maybe a bigger sound stage, but lost a lot of "weight" to the sound.  They may need more burn-in time though.

 

[jeff119]

 
I have the same experience with the Sylvania's.  That's been my usual tube for the TP.  Just recently gave the RCA Cleartops a try.  Initial impression - definitely not as happy with them (w/HD800's).  More airy sound, with maybe a bigger sound stage, but lost a lot of "weight" to the sound.  They may need more burn-in time though.

Do your Sylvania improves with burn in? Any noticeable differences? 
I wish it can retrieve more details though :/

 

[Bevo]

Mine haven't changed with burn in. Still sounds great!

 

[JoelT]

 
I have the same experience with the Sylvania's.  That's been my usual tube for the TP.  Just recently gave the RCA Cleartops a try.  Initial impression - definitely not as happy with them (w/HD800's).  More airy sound, with maybe a bigger sound stage, but lost a lot of "weight" to the sound.  They may need more burn-in time though.

Agreed regarding the HD800. There are gains in terms of detail retrieval with the RCA CT's vs. the Sylvania JAN's, but they're a bit to thin to really match well. On the other hand, the RCA CT's are (thus far) my favorite tube for the LCD-2, which tends to be very thick sounding. Matching with your headphones is key. 

 

[frankrondaniel]

  Agreed regarding the HD800. There are gains in terms of detail retrieval with the RCA CT's vs. the Sylvania JAN's, but they're a bit to thin to really match well. On the other hand, the RCA CT's are (thus far) my favorite tube for the LCD-2, which tends to be very thick sounding. Matching with your headphones is key. 

 
I can definitely imagine the Clear Tops pairing well with a darker, thicker sounding headphone.

 

[frankrondaniel]

  Do your Sylvania improves with burn in? Any noticeable differences? 
I wish it can retrieve more details though :/

 
It's been a while since I first starting using the Sylvanias. I recall the highs being a little rough to begin with and then smooth some over time.  But I don't think there were any huge changes.

 

[JoelT]

   
It's been a while since I first starting using the Sylvanias. I recall the highs being a little rough to begin with and then smooth some over time.  But I don't think there were any huge changes.

+1

 

[groovyd]

I agree, the JAN is good for brighter phones such as T1 and the cleartops for darker such as LCD-X, or the JANS are better for people who prefer a bit more 'beats' sound and the cleartops for a more neutral presentation. Would be nice to see a Frequency response graph for the same pair of headphones using each set of tubes as a reference.  Are there curves different? How do they influence the peaks?
 
I would love to see an inexpensive USB based headphone cup mic that would seal to the headphone cup and approximate the ear canal geometry which pairs with an app to do some automatic sweeps and display a response curve.  Would be really nice as a small iPhone peripheral which plays the sound and records the response at once.

 

[LemSkee]

I have officially arrived at Planet Audio Utopia!
 
Like my previous "review" I can only offer meager elementary opinions, but here's what I can tell you thus far:
 
RCA Clear Tops vs. Sylvania JANs (approximately 60 hours of burn in on the CTs and over 120 hours on the JANs)
 
The CTs seemed to be a bit more tonally articulate (without any harshness) but I definitely feel that I lost a bit of fullness when compared to the sound the JANs provided me.  This is especially true in regards to the bass and low end in general.  The CTs (perhaps through this added articulation) added a hint of brightness to my HD800s but not to the point of being fatiguing.  I agree with the opinions of fellow Head-Fiers in that the CTs would be a perfect match for darker cans.  While a very slight improvement in soundstage may be evident, the shortcomings in how the bass is crafted force me to give the win to the JANs.
 
Mullard CV4003 (approximately 20 hours of burn in on the Mullards)
 
Now here's where I start to get happy.  Although this may be considered a bit premature with only 20 hours on the Mullards, I can say that as of now, these are the tubes for me!  It feels like I get the articulation, soundstage, dash of tube-e-ness warmth, and bass production I've been longing for with my cans.  I believe the Mullards are a great marriage with the HD800s. At first, I thought the top end was being slightly shaved off, then I realized it was simply the bottom end being picked up a bit to provide a more complete output.  All three families (bass, mids, and highs) just sing together in harmony with this latest roll in.  While the JANs gave me the bass I was looking for, albeit mildly bloated, the Mullards give me that bass with a seemingly more authentic and truer presentation.  It's as if the CV4003s understand how accurate the HD800s are and said "ok boys, we're good with that category, now let's go smooth out and polish off every other area and call it a day".  A terrible analogy but describing what I'm hearing is hard to do with words.  Now this of course is just my own opinion with my limited gear and expertise; however, I am so happy to report that I have found a set of tubes that give me everything I wanted when I purchased the 800s.
 
As more time gets put on the Mullards or when I roll in a set of Chinese tubes, I'll keep you guys posted.  For anyone else that's thrown in some Mullards, I'd love to hear your feedback (especially if you're using HD800s like me).
 
Enjoy!
 
Lem
 
gear used: WA7 (with EH Gold Tubes) - WA7tp - WA7 USB DAC - HD800 Cans

 

[frankrondaniel]

Thanks for the feedback! That's very useful, especially since we have the same setup and seem to have the same opinions. I'll have to give the Mullards a try.

 

[groovyd]

Got a couple pair on order... should be interesting to hear the differences.

 

[desertblues]

I'm running a pair of Mullard ECC82 and really starting to like what I'm hearing with my T1's! Only 8 hours on the tubes so far.

 

[frankrondaniel]

I'm running a pair of Mullard ECC82 and really starting to like what I'm hearing with my T1's! Only 8 hours on the tubes so far.

What are you hearing now with the T1 that you like? I haven't used my T1 lately. Maybe it's time to give it a listen again.