I am guessing you haven't heard Lamm or Ypsilon phono stages? I will never go back to SS rectification in a phono stage.
Rogue Audio seems to agree with you on this. They use SS rectification on their tube amps for this reason. They are powerful amps with tight bass. On the other hand, I find that with lower powered tube amplifiers, tube rectification tends to produce a more natural, more rounded bass. Hard to make a call because both sound good and they are different overall amp designs. I would say that tube rectification, together with lower powered tube amps do sound better because the bass is more natural. This is also using 100-dB. horn speakers. I still use SS for the subs. But, that is because it is what I have.
I’m running Philips 5R4GYS in a couple of my Decware headphone amps and there is no question in my mind that rectifiers can make a massive difference in the sound of an amp.
My first tube rectified amp is being built now. Fortunately I have a dozen 5r4gy , half are circa 1945 and 1956 NOS JAN . I have a nice pair of Raytheon and a few other nice ones of the variety. I know they should last long but I want this amp to outlive me !
I've rolled 5Y3G, 5V4G, and 5U4G through my Decware ZP3 and definitely notice subtle differences between them. Not confident that I could hear differences between different brands of the same model, though.
More than person has told me the vintage ones are much better than new. If Western Electric makes the 274b again I will get one to go with my 300bs
I have a Decware ZP3 also. Decware attributes these rectifiers sounding different due to the slight differences in voltage that they impart to the circuit. And, you are correct, the differences you hear are very subtle.
Sounds like SS rectified = more SS like bass and tube rectified = more tube like bass, roll your own. Not too surprising.
I would not quite agree with this. I have had soggy bass from tube amps with solid state rectifiers as well as amazing bass with the same, I believe the quality of bass seems to rely on the quality of the power transformers. A Jadis tube amplifier I heard a few times had the most solid bass I have ever heard in a tube amp- Jadis are known for their custom wound proprietary transformers and it shows. Having a tube rectifier in my preamp improves the sound quality IMHO, bass is excellent and overall warmth, smoothness, sound stage and dynamics are incredible. It also has a a high quality R-Core transformer which have lower noise and notably better than toroidal transformers. FYI Luxman uses R-Core transformers in some of their sources and amplifiers- see under the hood of the new L-507Z integrated.
So system dependent but I do believe a good designer with sufficient reins can do quite well with either method. I think SS will nearly always move things in one direction, not necessarily better.
as a complete sidebar - a couple of my guitar amp heads have a ss/rectifier switch in the circuit/chassis. the ubiquitous mesa boogie rectifier series have had it as well for decades. when i want some sag in the guitar attack/response - rectifier when i want to tighten up the attack a bit - ss
I'm not a guitar player but many of my friends are. About fifty years ago, my friend was showing me the back of the head. It had a tube/SS switch, which did change the sound signature by a small amount. This was the first time I had heard of such a thing and found myself puzzled by it?
Looking at the UK Mullard GZ32, Acme 274B, Sophia Aqua 274B (oooh blue, pretty!) or Emission Labs 5u4G (woof, spendy.) Should I expect a pretty similar lifespan across all of these?
Have you found any rectifier that worked particularly well with the Lamm Phono? I’ve got an LP 2.1 that I’d like to experiment with. Thanks!
Congrats! Great Phono. I love a SUT with the MM stage. The Jensens are nice too. I found Mullard Blackburns to be excellent. Also some vintage Sylvania's, RCA's, and Tungsols also sound great. I found them source dependent. They had a profound balance on timbre and frequency balance on my system. Ultimately I stayed with 50's Mullards. Make sure you get military spec for any brand EZ90/6X4. I switched to the Ypsilon so I have a bunch of extra rectifiers. PM me if you have an itch. Enjoy the fun. Important, Vladimir told me it is really important to let the unit cool for 5 minutes before cycling power. Makes comparisons tougher, unfortunately. Jeff
Wondering how many folks use some form of external tube rectified power supply for their phono stages? I'm looking at a couple of builds, one that was interesting is a double tube power supply, 2 5u4g's, two chokes, two mains transformers, tubes are AC heated then supplies rectified DC to phono stage. Wondering what the advantage of doubling up on everything here would be when something like the modwright ps 9.0 power supply for instance utilizes a single rectifier.
Kind of just expanding on the topic, I would imagine its to decrease any potential sag for hifi application vs. the distortion you may want from a guitar amp, but I feel like I read conflicting things all over, even a guitar amp builder went on to say that dual/triple rectified amps were more marketing gimmicks than anything as you wouldn't draw enough power for it to be an issue, so it shouldn't be an issue for a phono-stage, right? Any other potential benefit from a dual rectified power supply? Also have seen plenty of conflicting arguments in regards to AC vs DC heating, some claiming that with AC heating you have more "magic," other saying that the number one most important factor of a power supply is silence and if you do AC heating you may introduce a hum where DC will be silent. Wondering what you all have found, or how you would approach this if building a tube power supply for a preamp?
Anybody done a shoot out of GZ34 5AR4 rectifiers from different manufacturers to determine if sonic differences can be heard? I've got GZ34s from Mullard, Sylvanis and Matsushita/National/Panasonic back in F/S if anyone wants to give a shootout a try (I even have a couple Toshiba GZ34s on hand as well).
Just out of curiosity, how did the Gold Lions work out for you? Did you end up swapping them out for something else? I’m currently looking at possible replacements for my Evo100 preamp that won’t require me to take out a second mortgage.
Hello. I have a preamp that requires the 5ar4 as well. I used the JJ's after my stock tube blew and they are great. I then bought 2 matsushita and noticed a slight improvement in the bass, tighter. Then I put some 1960's mullards in and you can forget it. Way better bass with the tightness and punchiness you expect from a SS amp. I haven't changed them since. The JJ's are really good though and now that I've been using the mullards for awhile I plan on changing back to see how they sound.
there are a number of sylvania NOS on ebay right now, better priced than the mullards, you can get a pair for ~ 200. i would bet on these rather than any new production rectifiers but i have not heard the JJ. 5ar4 gz 34 for sale | eBay
