EC Studio

Yeh, I was interested in the M, especially since they had to move the rectifiers outside of the case. Was interested to see how that would look in a production version.

Also great review Negura, I've been waiting on hearing your thoughts for weeks! Ended up PMing you anyway!

 

Easy, but not cheap Trying to decide if I should get them soonish, or after I've logged a bunch more hours on my NOS RCA's. If anyone can provide some impressions comparing the two; ideally using WE417 as the driver - I'd appreciate it!

 

Man I would love to listen to this amp in London! Any chance you're bringing it to Canjam?

 

Just a pair would already bring something to the sound, and I'm sure some other guys would be interested to take it off your hands if you don't like it. Expect some more upper range with the Krons, in any case. There's a reason negura is using amperex 5842, and not WE.

 

Is that for warmth? Overall better drive vs. the WE417?

 

Negura will probably tell you better than me, for the studio specifically, but given the WE is W shaped, it's not the best with the krons. The amperex are more linear and don't over emphasize the highs.

 

Amperex have some warmth too and are better in technicalities than the WE pair I had. Based on my pair I do not understood the hype or pricing for the WE - very average sounding tubes. But then again that's the problem with NOS - there is the russian roulette element. I've heard some meh pairs of Amperex too (wooly bass), but I still preferred those to WE.

 

I'm surprised then when running two different tubes they aren't set up symmetrically. I can see you've done A B A B, I thought it would be A B B A

 

Found and older gentleman that's willing to sell me a tightly matched quad of AVVT mesh plate 2a3's from his private stash. Don't ask the price. Done a bunch of research on the Kron's; this same older gentleman used to sell them, but stopped. He said they're not made as well as they used to be. They're using soft glass now, imported Chinese filaments, different defuse coatings, etc. He stopped selling them because of a very high return rate the past few years.

To be fair - I wasn't able to verify most of that with anyone / anywhere else (except for failure rate) so who knows. I'm pretty stoked to have these meshes inbound; this tube is legendary. If only they were the blue glass versions.

 

Man I have an old guy with the same 4. He won't sell them for love or money. FML

Congrats on the quad!

 

Yea, they're crazy rare; it's easier to find vintage RCA black plates these days.

 

I ran into a guy last year who had a huge stash of old tubes, it was essentially his son's college fund. Apparently he's had a great rate of return on that investment in the past 5 years because of stuff like this. Anyway, can't wait to hear your impressions about these tubes, to see if they live up to the hype.

 

So you are saying that rational people... Tube hoard?

 

In a nutshell .... No

 

Never said it was rational, just that it had actually worked in the short term. This same dude also had an accident with a restored WE amp that blew out a matched quad of WE 300Bs, worth something like $6k. It's not often you can say your money literally went up in smoke, but tubes can certainly feel that way, especially the crazy NOS stuff.

 

I have to admit that it gives me pause; how much can be lost in a flash with these tubes. Overall, I've been fortunate.

 

A shiny new quad of AVVT 2A3 Mesh's.

New, tight - but already slapping the NOS RCA's around

 

Time to schedule another local meet though gents; ya'll need to hear these!