Canuck Audio Mart

Thanks for the idea JJ.
Like ford I have a GF A-534 and deCapo MM i's and they are a great match. I've paired it with a GF CD-427 and now (oh joy) have about 7 different types of tubes that I can start rolling. So advice and hearing from others is very, very welcome...!
I was actually going to *start* with the 300Bs but now I'll wait until I hear more from ford... then it will be my turn to contribute.
The sound BTW is simply fabulous. The soundstage completely fills my room and I'm frequently looking behind me because it sometimes sounds like that is where it is coming from!

Great idea JJ......

I picked up the A-88 and hope to hear from some of the other members.....

Shameless plug.........Check out my ad for VUUM The Amp ..........

Looking forward to hear your observations, Kennyo!

-- JJ

Thanks for the info on the Vuum for tube rolling Jan - I'll be using the Vuum as an experiment for tube rollling, and will keep this thread updated as I learn more about this stuff.

My A-88 never sounded so sweet with my new speakers now. I finallly found something I can judge this amp by properly, though I spent a lot more than I wanted to on them, it's well worth it IMO. I'm running the A-88 with the Energy Veritas 2.2i's with a small Yamaha Servo sub to fill in the sub 40 hz. So far, WOW - sounds great.

Haven't tried it with the Vuum yet, but I will.

I have a pair of cryo'd 300B-98 Shuguangs a quad of cryo'd Shuguang KT-88's and a pair of Shuguang EL-34B's that I can make available for 'test' rolling. PM me if you are interested.

Kennyo and Ford07, the A-534 headphone jack is tapped from the 300B's, rolling should be quite the experience with a decent set of headphones.

Ian

I'll try to make this short - but I'm not noted for it...

I decided to go from small tube to big tube on the A-534 so picked up a pair of NOS Mullard 12AX7s from the very nice folk at TubeAudioProducts.com / MullardTubes.com. Equipment, aside from the GF A-534 is a GF CD-427. Speakers are Reference 3a MM de Capo i's, interconnects are Unity Shotgun Solid Core and the speaker cables are a pair of Monster Z2 biwires (I can hear the comments now but try them and you might be very surprised). Stand height is 24" (I also have 29" stands and lowering the speakers makes a huge difference).

To compare I decided this time to stick to one CD, Karrin Allyson - Ballads (Remembering John Coltrane). Mostly because I like it but it does have a good mix of vocal and combo.

Anyhow, the stock tubes are very good indeed and I would be quite happy with them. If I hadn't heard the Mullards. On "Say It (Over and Over Again)" there is just more definition to all the pieces, vocals included. And for some reason the bass is quite a bit tighter - I'm not sure why 12AX7s should affect the bass but I'm just reporting what I heard. Moving on and listening to "Too Young To Go Steady" you can hear a really expanded sound stage. Very, very nice.

I'll stop now. The Mullards are a little pricy ($150 USD the pair) but a noticeable upgrade and worthwhile to my ears. Now it's on to the EL34s. Suggestions anyone?

Kennyo

Thanks for the review on the Mullards. I went the cheaper route and tried some Tung Sol reissues and to be perfectly honest I liked the original tubes better. The tungsols were more etched in the high end and the bass response was not as good for my ears anyways (sorry don't have the technical lingo to describe the bass) I've also got some EL 34s from winged c and noticed a nice improvement with them, the female vocals were more liquid and things just tightened up on the bottom end. I'm using MM decapos (not the i version)

I also tried a Winger c rectifier tube (nos version from the tube store) and this is where I noticed the greatest difference. The dynamics improved dramatically with this tube compared to the original.

Got some cryoed Shuguang 300Bs on the way to test from Ian and will report on those when I get them..Thanks Ian..

Sent you a Shuguang 274 rectifier tube as well to try.

Ian

Kennyo .... I believe you are talking about Brimars and not Mullards....they don't have any 12ax7 Mullards at KR Audio...just the RAF Brimars.

Nope, not Brimar, they are Mullards. It wasn't KR Audio, it was TubeAudioProducts.com. I corrected my original post within about 20 minutes... you must have picked up some old cached version somehow!

TubeAudioProducts.com is KRaudio dim wit.

http://tubeaudioproducts.com/about.aspx

they say they carry Mullards, kennyo is no dim wit.

You yourself also appear to be one....check it out.

http://tubeaudioproducts.com/Mullard-Br ... x?CatID=65

So I'm a dimwit - I've been called worse!

Here's Alfred's reply when I ordered them:

"Hello Ken -

Thank-you for the purchase of our wonderful NOS Mullard tubes.

Your order is already on its way to you . It should be there in a few days.

Ken are you a member of Audiogon & CAM ???

If so, please forward us your username so as we may submit
superb positive feedback for your approval.

Hopefully you will as well leave some kind words for us.

We take great pride in our customer service & customer satisfaction .


Yours Truly - Alfred Kayser
www.tubeaudioproducts.com
www.mullardtubes.com"

Maybe I have been using "tubeaudioproducts.com" when I should have been using "mullardtubes.com"? If, so I'm sorry for the confusion, but as you can see the vendor seems to be sharing the confusion as well...

Ian......
Just thought I would let you know that I am really enjoying the A-88 that I picked up from you and Rachel.
Went ahead and picked up some Electro harmonix KT-88's from Andrew at Solutions A/V.
It's great that you are putting some tubes out in the field to play with.
I will let you all know how I make out with the E H's.
And may take you up on your test tubes at a later date!!!!