Well aren't we all? seriously though. The pot is sealed. If I have to go through the trouble of taking it out disassemble it and then clean it, it will be much easier to simply replace it for $15.
Ah. Wasn't aware it was sealed. Ironic that the idea is to shield it from dust when cleaning it becomes nearly impossible without needing to remove it first.
yeah. and if I have to go through that trouble, might as well upgrade it to a $50 one. see the logic?
So I'm now looking to finally replace the stock 300B in the 805. Seems to be a pretty good consensus about the Psvane ACME. Any other 300B's I should consider?
I had got replacement RCA 805 today. Fortunately, this one had no problem. It seems that RCA 805 sounds more transparent than United 805 while United give fuller sound. Thus United 805 may work better in bright system. My Acme 805 and 300b had worked well for more than 3500 hours. I may do mini shootout between Acme, RCA and United 805 this coming weekend.
I noticed going from the stock 805's to the RCA 805 that the sound was certainly cleaner and more transparent which my system benefitted from. I don't think the United 805 would have worked well for me so this is good information you've shared.
I've been reading quite a few reviews comparing these EML's to other 300B's and I'm liking the sonic descriptions I'm reading for synergy with my system. It's on the top of my list right now.
FYI, for the warranty to apply, you need to buy them from an authorized source and then register them within (I think) 2 weeks from the purchase date on their website.
Yes, I had noted that and saw in the US that the dealers are Verdant, tubeaudiostore (MR), and tubesusa.com. Thanks for making sure I knew! The warranty is certainly an important element for these tubes.
Guys ... what’s a nice 6SL7 that you have used on the 508/805 that don’t cost a kidney? Something around say $60-80 max a piece
I ended up ordering a pair from Music Reference (which is a bit odd with Roger no longer there - RIP). But the tube pair was $200 less expensive from MR than tubeusa.com.
But is MR part of the list of authorized sellers? If so, great. Otherwise, the warranty won't be applicable.
Yes they are - one of three in the US. I will register them for warranty upon receipt - this is described on the MR invoice as well. $740/pr vs $933/pr is a pretty big price difference. MR's inventory may be older perhaps if EML has raised prices recently....dunno the reason.
Keep in mind they make a few similarly named tubes. 300B 300B 2.5 300B-mesh 300B-XLS I'd suggest you double-check exactly which one you purchased. The one I recommend and named is the last one in that list.
I would recommend to try connecting speakers to different outputs (4/8/16) and play with feedback settings. Both change sound in significant way. 6N9P tube that comes with this amplifier from factory is very good and closer to the vintage 6SL7 than to other modern version of 6SL7GT.
2PCS 6N9S (6H9C) / 6SL7 / 1579 MELZ TUBES! NOS! METAL BASE! TESTED! RARE 50'S! | eBay You can try this tube which sound sweet. I go between Rca 5691 and 6n9s depending on my mood.
I can attest to that. Had been running Spendor A7's, which are an easy load with nominal impedance of 8 ohms and never get below 6.1, on the 8 ohm tap of the amp. And with NFB 2 for a bit more feedback and control than baseline. Now I am dialing in some D7.2's, which while listed as 8 ohm speakers, have an overall impedance around 6.5 ohms and spend a large portion of the bass curve around 4.5 ohms. I think they sound better on the 4 ohm tap, which better matches the bass requirements and brings out more relative energy/weight there, where it's needed (and possibly attenuates upper frequencies a bit). And with that, I have been able to go back to NFB 1 to bring out the life/emotion. What I am learning is that the taps and NFB settings often work in similar directions given that there is a general correlation between speaker damping and impedance. So it's seems unlikely to me that you would ever use high feedback with the 4 ohm tap and similarly unlikely you would use 16 ohm tap and no feedback. (Though as per @AP1 the only useful NFB settings are 1 and 2 and I doubt many use 3 or 4). Though could be wrong about this ...
