Soooooo, I have had the tubes in for about 7 hours thus far of listening time. First thing are some aesthetic observations...... the height is about 1/2 inch taller than the EH Gold Grid but about the same shorter than the KR, also they are not quite as heavy as the KR tubes ( think this is due to the thickness of the glass) however the internals are much beefier in the SE's, they are extremely well built ( thinkin once you get up to these amounts of dollars they all should be tho.....). On to the sound, here is where it counts for most........ this tube did nothing but what it should do, in other words it offered no colour, no wham or pow ( usually find that if a tube or piece of gear does one thing really really well or focuses on that one thing, eventually that one thing is what i dislike the most about it.......) this tube however did everything exceptionally well, a proportionate amount of bass ( tight and clean and precise) mids ( very lifelike, and well layered) and precise controlled highs, non fatiguing and non offensive, however still adding a great deal of information to the music. See what I mean, no wow, no excelling here or there nor did it have fantastic this or that, it did offer however the most well balanced and multi layered sound I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, wonder if the tubes will break in, interesting to see what happens if they do........................ I have left out all the buzz words and jargon in describing these tubes( dynamics/speed/accuracy/focus etc etc) as I'm thinking all of them at this level will have these attributes. Next I am trying to convince my one buddy with the KR tubes to come back for a direct A-B and then to get him to convince his friend ( he has a set of the EML Mesh plates) to come down and do an A-B-C...................
