I’ve been listening to my new Moreplay for a few weeks now with a matched pair of RCA metal JAN 6V6Y’s. One of the stock Russian tubes that came with the kit was received cracked and just recently replaced, thanks Bottlehead! And that’s why I started out listening to metal’s. I also purchased a matched pair of Sylvania JAN 6V6GTY’s (brown-base black-plate) but hadn’t yet listened to them.
The Moreplay is mostly stock, although I have installed an 10kohm/100kohm LPAD attenuator on the volume control, which I estimate reduces then gain by about 3 dB, because I didn’t have much usable volume control range initially. I also grounded Pin 8 on both tube sockets to the chassis rather than connecting them to Pin 1 to facilitate using metal 6V6’s.
Once I received the stock replacement tube it was time to do some tube rolling! So, I put the stock 6n6c’s in the Moreplay (zero burn-in time on these tubes) and listened to the A side of a recently acquired album. The album is the beautiful new release by Daughter, Stereo Mind Game. Then I switched to the RCA 6V6Y metal’s, which I had maybe 20 hours on at this point and listened to the A side again. Then switched to the Sylvania 6V6GTY’s (also zero burn in), and again listened to Side A. I repeated the entire tube rotation a second time.
My system: Ortofon 2m Bronze – U-Turn Orbit Theory – Eros 2 – Moreplay – Schiit Lokius eq – Nobsound 6P1 (class-A SET all signal-path caps upgraded) – speaker level outs – Hsu Research ULS-15 MK2 subwoofer – speakers, DYI DML panels. The listening room is a 400 sqft bedroom, untreated but fairly heavily damped by furnishings. Listening distance 9 feet.
I find the DML speakers to be astonishingly good and with good source material, at reference volume, can create the sensation of listening to the performance rather than a recording of it. That said, I don’t think of myself as an adept critical listener. And so, I expected to struggle to hear what I anticipated to be subtle differences between various tube types. Boy was I wrong!
The Russian tubes exhibited a noticeably textured, almost grainy, signature. Sound stage and imaging was great. That is a strong point of the DML speakers and to be expected. The sound was very satisfying, but not as smooth and engaging as I had remembered with the metal tubes; however, this was my first listen to this record, and I thought maybe it’s the recording. Note, I have listened to Stereo Mind Game before digitally (iTunes lossless - WIIM Mini - Denifrips Aries II - Moreplay running the metal tubes) but I find digital sounds rolled off and a bit flat compared to the vinyl. So, I could rationalize that the new texture I was hearing was from the record.
However, switching to the 6V6Y metals, the grainy texture was gone. The metal signature was smooth, detailed, more open. The sound stage seemed less busy even spare by comparison, with more space between instruments. That effect was quite pronounced. There was a similar degree of detail, treble, midrange, and base, but better clarity, openness and dimensionality. It was at this point that I realized the Russian tubes produced a flatter sound stage by comparison. The engagement factor increased significantly. These weren’t subtle differences. I was surprised.
By comparison to the previous tubes, the Sylvania JAN 6V6GTY sound is astonishing. Gorgeously lush, so lush, to the point that I was wondering I’d accidently bumped the volume knob and turned it up (not the case). The sound stage was huge and 3D. Instrument separation was still rock solid, but each sounded bigger and fuller. It was as if the Moreplay was a completely different preamp. The only other component in my system that can make such a drastic change in sound signature is my equalizer! The Sylvania powered Moreplay is lush, euphonic, and oh so engaging.
I repeated the rotation through all the tubes again and reconfirmed my listening impressions. The experience was nothing less than astonishing!
On my to-do list is to slip my Schiit Saga S into the chain in place of the Moreplay to see how it sounds by comparison.
