Emission Labs 2A3

[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.

[Doc B.]

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, that and the 1/2" front panel. Actually a lot of it would be boutique parts that we think work best - $80 switches with coin silver contacts, tantalum resistors where they are useful, spendy film and foil caps, turret posts, etc. And the addition of the balanced connections that so many well meaning but perhaps not design-experienced audiophiles want add a lot of cost when done in such a way that they don't take away from the sound.

Regarding transformers, we rejected samples from an awful lot of winders that didn't really stand up over the years before we decided we could do as well or better ourselves. This certainly does not include MQ, Mike's output iron is still the reference standard in a lot of ways. But remember that Mike and PJ have worked together on several designs. Thus the magnetic design philosphy is much the same, the difference is often in the hand vs. machine stacking and the occasional complex layer winding and/or exotic materials that Mike use in some of his transformers.

[Thoburn]

Wow. Thanks Dan and Paul. One can only dream of a system like that.    I'm sure it would be the be all end all of SET.

[xcortes]

Paul,

As to the film caps. Assuming one finds a way to fit them in a Paramount. Am I right assuming the pegging order is cathode reistor bypass, last ps caps and other ps caps?

Also, there's the 100uF 630v Solens and Axons. Any other candidates?

Thanks

[Paul Joppa]

Paul,

As to the film caps. Assuming one finds a way to fit them in a Paramount. Am I right assuming the pegging order is cathode reistor bypass, last ps caps and other ps caps?

Also, there's the 100uF 630v Solens and Axons. Any other candidates?

Thanks

The cathode bypass is in series with the last PSU cap, with respect to the signal current loop - so I'd guess them to be equally important. But the main reason is long-term reliability; the parafeed circuit is arranged to minimize their importance.

I would probably use smaller caps, and replace the 270 ohm resistor with a choke. I have not worked on optimal values though.

[xcortes]

I have the 2A3 version so no 270k ohm resistor to replace

Thanks

Ooops. Didn't realize this discussion was in the Stereomour section. Mine are Paramounts.

[Jim R.]

Toby,

I agree that the EMLs will be worth it, but I don't believe the report on the JJ 2a3-40s is accurate.  They too are great tubes, but you really do have to buy them from Eurotubes.com.  What pertais to the 300b does not necessarily pertain to the 2a3-40.

Still, I think you'll just get more loveliness out of the EMLs.

-- Jim