will
|
Lon,
I love it that over years your adapting to treble sensitivity, and me to low bass sensitivity, seems we are left with understanding tubes very similarly...preferring, respecting and using a lot of the same tubes for the same reasons. Good tubes, and always the musician thing, where for some of us, having got sucked into listening pretty deeply to the instruments for a long time, seems that can amp up perception and discernment. But still, pretty fun to think about, considering different sensitivities, and the vast complexity of different systems and rooms, especially when the subtle stuff is needed in all the balances. Yet, all and all, seems that we are hearing and integrating tubes similarly in different rooms and systems, while also using complex tube sets when looked at across pre sections and amps.
I guess it must be to do with our adapting to our sensitivities in ways that balance across audio parameters. And perhaps as much, I think for you and I, our tuning style of digging until more recordings sound great and without "dumbing things down for great recordings" is a pretty vast but accurate baseline.
As usual, I likely would gravitate a touch more open/fast, a little less darkness to the "warm" but maybe not...not knowing the Sophia Classic 300B sound. In that Sofia direction, and enjoying your touching on reviewing tubes as you explore your new amp, this got me onto thinking that our slightly divergent experience with the Sophia Aqua 274B might be a good illustration of how system/room context can change a really good tube preference, and even sharing the luxury of a huge variety of similar preferred tuning tubes.
Since so much of my amp work has been to open space and fine detail with more complete resolution with natural speed and spectral balances... Getting that to happen musically was not a shoe-in, for me taking a lot of slow and cumulative effort. But the underlying fundamental seems pretty straight up..... pull resolution in balance everywhere, which is basically both increasing resolution while resolving smearing. Associated, the double edge part, if our "conditioned" sense of "detail" allows us to get really close, but without more fully resolving fine detail in space, we don't know it is not there.
Anyway, seems my system is probably a bit more of a "magnifying glass," and yours, by design, resolving and refined in all areas, but with a bit more warmth objective... likely more "forgiving."
This probably explains in part my never having fully gotten the Sophia Aqua 274B in my amps. Whereas, in my 300B it is great. The amp still needs more open resolution and speeding up for me, but it is coming pretty easily and makes me think it doubtful that the ways this amp was tuned previously could be called strictly old school 300B. And from when I got it until now, now being more open from my work, the Sophia Aqua247B is one of the "best rectifiers" I have had in that amp to date (mine are mostly NOS and lots of them).
Makes me think about designing tubes for 300Bs and other "big power tubes" used in SE settings, perhaps having some reality. And why not, the levels of tuning we can explore these days. In my 300B these 274Bs have excellent open and complex ranges and balances, and do it all with an interesting very grounded and solid feel, while nudging warmth with great space and fine detail across the spectrum...not dulling "warmth." In my tuned up Torii and CSP3, the same tube did most all this, but did not have that synced in grounded feeling that makes them disappear into music like this.
I do have two of them for the 300B though, and glad Kamran got more thoughts from Sue at Sophia, finding out that for Steve's 300B one of their previous version 274B Aquas was questionable due to current constraints. I am too tight so far to buy them new anyway with so many killer NOS rectifiers, but I guess I will keep an eye out for used new version ones.That said, it was intersting to me that the other day you were liking as Amperex 5R4GWY, and I had been, and continue to, run a cleaner tube of the type, some Fivre 5R4GYs, needing added speed and clarity as I burn in some cap changes. And I too have found the 5AR4/GZ34s I tried in this amp a little thick.
Wish we had the same amp so I could hear your tests in my system with more relative accuracy, but then..... this is pretty cool to me. Hopefully this sidetrack has some interest for folks.
|