Emission Labs 2A3

[Thoburn]

Yo,

Just curious. Anybody out there been brave enough to try EML 2A3 tubes in their Stereomour yet?

 

[jrebman]

No, but I'd be interested in this too, as this is very likely one of the tubes I will use in my stereomour when it is done.

-- Jim

 

[jrebman]

Thoburn,

Did you ever get the EMLs and try them in your stereomour?

-- Jim

 

[Thoburn]

I have not replaced the Sovtek 2A3 yet and have not heard of anybody trying the EML yet. I have a whole lot of hours on my Stereomour now and it is making beautiful music. No problem with the Jupiter caps either. I actually think the next logical step for my system is an upgraded needle for my VPI Scout II. Been saving up for that. I really want the new Lyra Delos, but it is scary expensive.

 

[jrebman]

Thanks for the update. Yes, the lyras are nice carts, but not cheap.

-- Jim

 

[Thoburn]

It has been over a year and thought I would churn this thread a bit. I didn't get the Lyra as it is too expensive. I ended up with a Dynavector 20X2L and am very happy with it. Now I'm looking at tubes again. I am still using the stock 2A3 tubes that came with my Stereomour. I have settled on either the JJ 2A3-40 or the EML 2A3 Mesh plate. I can't decide if the extra $250 dollars would be worth it. Does anybody have first hand experience comparing these two tubes?

Thanks and Happy New Year...

 

[Hank Murrow]

Dear Thoburn;

I asked tha same question some months back of Srajan Ebaen. Here is his reply:

"I've sold most my tube amps since so wouldn't be the right person to ask. But I will confirm that JJ has had bad reliability and that the EML tubes are in a different class. I haven't done that comparison with 2A3 but 300B. I also ran EML 45 and 5UG4 and never had any issues with them.

I know Sasa from Trafomatic quite well since he built my custom amps and he too has stopped dealing with JJ for the same reasons, including having had  tubes shipped  that weren't straight but where the base was glued on crooked. When manufacturers feel uncomfortable with a tube supplier, I think it behooves us as end users to think twice about those as well -"

Srajan Ebaen
Publisher, 6moons.com
Chablais, Switzerland
+41-21-922-3369

So, I am hoping to send an order for the EML's for my 2A3 Custom BH amp.

Cheers, Hank

 

[johnsonad]

I ran EML 2A3 mesh in my old Paramounts and loved them. Bought them from Jac and can't say enough good things about working with him. If the 2A3 is your tube then look no further than EML

 

[BNAL]

I ran EML 2A3 mesh in my old Paramounts and loved them. Bought them from Jac and can't say enough good things about working with him. If the 2A3 is your tube then look no further than EML

Was this in the Paramount without the soft start?

 

[johnsonad]

Was this in the Paramount without the soft start?

No, with soft start. I wrote about them in a thread a year or so ago.

 

[debk]

I run in my Paramount with soft start also.  love them great sounding tubes

Happy NewYears

Deb

 

[Thoburn]

Thanks guys and gals,

Thanks for your input. I am leaning towards the EML 2A3. I had the gut feeling that the EML was worth its price. Although, it seems a bit odd to put a $550 set of tubes in a $750 amplifier. Even though I do love my Stereomour. 

 

[Doc B]

Toby,

If you like we can mill a 1/2" piece of aluminum for the front, throw in a $2 blue LED and charge you $20,000 like other manufacturers do.

 

[Thoburn]

Toby,

If you like we can mill a 1/2" piece of aluminum for the front, throw in a $2 blue LED and charge you $20,000 like other manufacturers do.

I am in no way knocking the Stereomour. As I said, I love mine. I'm sorry if I came across badly. My point comes from my experience with turn table and phono cartridge shopping. I have been told by several folks that paying more for the cartidge than the table is a mistake because, in most cases, the table can't do the cartridge justice. Again, I appologize for appearing to knock the Stereomour. Turn tables and amplifiers are two different animals.

 

[Paul Joppa]

I'm pretty sure Doc B's tongue was in his cheek there - no harm, no foul!

We do look for good but plain parts, especially those that are most easily swapped out - capacitors and tubes. For one thing, it keeps the price accessible to more people; for another these things are so much a matter of taste, and the experience of discovering your own taste is so rewarding, that we do believe you should choose boutique parts yourself. We try to provide solid circuits, and as much as possible good transformers and chokes, which are more difficult to swap and (IMHO) more important to the ultimate sound.

 

[Vortexjah]

Hi guys, first post on the forums, so welcome to me . Anyway I asked a local tube amp maker here in Australia which 2a3 tubes he prefered and here was the answer:



"Have only tried a few various types. I'll rate them out of 100 as I see it.

Shuguang 2A3B (score = 50)
Shuguang 2A3C (score = 75)
PSVANE 2A3 HiFi (score = 10)
PSVANE 2A3-T (score = 30)
Sovtek 2A3 (score = 75)
Full Music 2A3 mesh plate globe (score = 90)

I like to TJ full music 2A3 globe meshplate, even more than the Emission Labs 45's I had. I find the EML tubes a bit thin? for my liking. They seem to loose the magic triode sound.

So far the TJ 2A3's have been very reliable, not so for their 300B tubes (I've stopped using them as the ladt 4 I purchased 3 of them were faulty)
I'm also getting a highish failure rate with the TJ6SL7 and TJ6SN7 tubes. It's now nudging 20%. It's very dissapointing as I love their tubes."

I'm still using the sovteks in my stereomour and I find they sound quite good. ill get around to trying some new tubes one day and the tj's are at the top of my list. Some other tubes worth investigating are the KR 2a3s, although KR tubes are quite expensive.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Shuguang 2A3B (score = 50)
Shuguang 2A3C (score = 75)
PSVANE 2A3 HiFi (score = 10)
PSVANE 2A3-T (score = 30)
Sovtek 2A3 (score = 75)
Full Music 2A3 mesh plate globe (score = 90)

I will second these ratings, though I have only heard one of the Psvane 2A3's, but I don't remember which one.

The Sovtek is ridiculously good for the price.

 

[Thoburn]

Hi guys, first post on the forums, so welcome to me . Anyway I asked a local tube amp maker here in Australia which 2a3 tubes he prefered and here was the answer:

Welcome to the forum Vortexjah and thanks for the post. I suppose I would have to listen to them all myself in my system to really know what works best for me. I guess I knew that, but it is not very feasible.

 

[Thoburn]

I'm pretty sure Doc B's tongue was in his cheek there - no harm, no foul!

We do look for good but plain parts, especially those that are most easily swapped out - capacitors and tubes. For one thing, it keeps the price accessible to more people; for another these things are so much a matter of taste, and the experience of discovering your own taste is so rewarding, that we do believe you should choose boutique parts yourself. We try to provide solid circuits, and as much as possible good transformers and chokes, which are more difficult to swap and (IMHO) more important to the ultimate sound.

Thanks for the sanity check Paul. IIRC, somewhere you mentioned designing an Ultimate Amp kit for around $10,000. Would a large chunk of that price be in the transforms?

 

[Paul Joppa]

Thanks for the sanity check Paul. IIRC, somewhere you mentioned designing an Ultimate Amp kit for around $10,000. Would a large chunk of that price be in the transforms?

Well, some but not a majority - I'd get Magnequest outputs and plate chokes, probably BAC-80 and TFA-2004Ni. Plans change of course, but thinking about it today it would be a Paramount 300B with all film caps, EML 300Bs, and a sequenced power supply. It would not be a kit.

Of course there are further places to go, but $10K would not be enough to get there  :^)  It would still be basically an extension of the Paramount - things like regulation, direct coupling, etc. There is just no real end to what you can spend on refinements, if you don't care about diminishing returns.