Not just an replacement, but an improvement!

ever since we make and sell tubes, one of the most occurring questions is: "What tubes must I buy to get ultimate sound out of my equipment". Now, if people ask the question that way, it is no beginner's question. For that reason, answering it is difficult. Some tube doctors have obscure theories and approaches. In several case you are listening to people that complete lack of engineering knowledge, and quite clever compensate this by being able to "hear" that a good engineer can not measure. On the forums those people team up with each other, and before you know it, you are in the middle of a discussion about opinions, which is not leading anywhere.

So be cautious, for any kind of black magic presented to you. That can be self-invented treatments, self invented test methods, or over-testing parameters that don't benefit a tube. Fantasy is set no limits, like CD de-polarizers, direction-sensitive interconnect cables, or "sound stones" to place near your speakers.

So.... back to the question: What makes good sound?

The answer we have, is based on a simple principle: The sound chain elements must be equal quality. Lets give an example of a wrong choice. Suppose you have 5000$ to spend, and you spend 4500$ on the amplifier, and 500$ on the speakers. It is obvious that this will not give the best sound for your 5000$. You need to balance the cost between speaker and amplifier such that your 5000$ gives the best result.

When it comes to replacing tubes, the above rule is also valid, and learned the hard way. Suppose the listener has the idea, perhaps tubes sound better than transistors. Then in an existing transistor based equipment, the transistor amplifier is replaced by a tube amplifier. Perhaps you recognize yourself even. Being aware that this is an experiment, the amplifier may not cost much. So the customer buys a chinese amplifier on Ebay, for just 400$ including shipment and all tubes. After a while, they come to the (valid) conclusion the sound is disappointing, and the suspected elements are the Chinese tubes. The frustration is very large, when they find out a set quality tubes costs more than the whole amplifier. So the Chinese tubes are used further, until they get weak. It can take up to two years, but in the end they will be replaced. This is simply two years wasted. So it would have been better to buy good tubes from the beginning.

Next step is, buying a set of speakers that are designed for tube amplifiers. (More about those requirements later)

And NOW the user finally has the possibility to hear the differences between different tubes. It is what they heard or read about, and finally this is now realized. The step of replacing the Chinese amplifier for a quality product is not far away also.

The following happened to me. In 2008, we presented the EML 2A3-Mesh tubes on a HiFi show, playing with a Yamamoto A-011 amplifier, and a set of exclusive horn loudspeakers. There was a middle aged woman coming back each day, with her husband, and bringing vintage Pink Floyd CD's, asking to hear them. She was sitting there several times with tears in her eyes. I asked if she had a problem, but she said she just liked the music that much. Then what she told me, moved me. The sound was so wonderful, but the reason of her sadness was, she spend 20 years of her life, unknowing such a sound excists, and these years can not be repeated. The loudspeakers she bought, after the show was over. This is a true story.

To my opinion, a well balanced set of tube gear is combined the following way:

1) Begin with top quality tube grade speakers. These have following properties:

• Efficiency above 95dB...100dB.
• Small Size and good sound never go together in harmony.
• Linear impedance graph. Ask for one. If the seller says "huh?", you walk away. Impedance must be 8 Ohms at all frequencies. Since that is never the case, you want to see for yourself how well the designer did his work. Linear means a line that is straight. No curves like a kangaroo hopping. a non-linear impedance speaker is no problem for a transistor amp, it is a major problem for a tube amplifier without feedback.
• Large surface of bass speakers. The only way to move air mass is by using a moving SURFACE.
• Two bass speakers in parallel will not be good as one big speaker.
• Avoid bass resonance chassis like monkey plague. (The ones with a hole somewhere in the cabinet). Very good is open baffle.
• Don't buy any stories about new invented speaker constructions. There are none since 70 years.
• No "shout". Often heard problem with high efficiency speakers. Only possible to hear by sound compare and demonstration. Don't let the seller fool you with non-shouting music, like single voices, or cello play. Bring a hard rock CD, and/or symphonic orchestra with loud crescendos, even if you don't like that sound. Speakers that can reproduce THIS nicely, sure sound better with soft music as well.
• Very large rooms: Take horn driver speakers.
• Very small rooms: Don't take horn drivers. (Some of those can look like a horn, but are not)

2) Connect to this a quality tube amplifier

• It must be of the kind that fits to the efficiency of your speakers.
• Good Tube sound develops when:
  • The tubes have something to do (otherwise will sound sterile)
  • The tubes are not stressed (otherwise will lack dynamics)
  • The amplifier should play at sufficient loudness at 50% power maximum power.
• Don't connect a 2x 50Watt amplifier to 108dB speakers.
• Don't connect a 2x 2Watt amplifier to 95d speakers
• Single Ended amplifiers are more expensive to buy, but often sound better at low power.
• Push pull amplifiers give more output power, but use up tubes faster.

3) Put in there the best tubes you can buy.

When you have all the above set right, you have come at this point here. Even a high cost tube will not be overly expensive compared to what good equipment costs, and sure with good equipment you will hear that!

"45 tube"amplifiers

• Best sounding tubes are real woven wire mesh tubes. Forget about so called mesh tubes that are in fact thin foil, with holes punched inside. The last are an optical fraud, when they are sold to you as mesh wire tubes.
• With historical EML tubes we recommended mesh only for amplifiers that have a low hum level. With modern versions however, both mesh and solid plate are extremely low in hum, and outdo even most NOS tubes. The modern versions have a virtual filament center tap to make this possible. Mesh sound is said to be more transparent, though electrical measurements verify just the same performance.

"2A3 tube"amplifiers

• Best sounding tubes are real woven wire mesh tubes. Forget about so called mesh tubes that are in fact thin foil, with holes punched inside. The last are an optical fraud, when they are sold to you as mesh wire tubes.
• Most recommended type is the EML-2A3 mesh.
• You can take EML 2A3-S also, this tube is fully 2A3 compatible, and in case you plan to do so later, it can be biased higher. Because of higher ruggedness, the 2A3-S is very good for push pull, though the mesh version is also suited for that, without limitation.

300B tube amplifiers, recommended tubes:

• EML 300B. This is our standard 300B tube to replace western Electric tubes, giving the classical 300B sound as original.
• EML 300B-XLS. This tube can replace 300B, but is larger dimensions. It has slightly less distortion at higher dynamics still. So this is an upgrade type. For user's words, read "opinions" from the JACMUSIC web site menu. You will soon notice every fourth positive feedback is about the 300B-XLS, whereas this is the total feedback for all sales, of a very wide product portfolio. This tells it all. It is one of our most successful products.
• EML 300B mesh. A specialty for "connoisseurs". We do not line up with a famous Chinese factory claiming to have 40Watt mesh tubes. Claiming that is easy, but making that? We say it is impossible. The EML 300B mesh is not "a 300B with mesh plates". The EML300B is a 520B with mesh plates, and like that we could specify it 22 Watt typical and 28 Watt max. It can be put in any 300B configuration though, since the working point is softer at only 22 Watt. So you can replace a 300B with the EML300B-Mesh if you have a way to set the bias at 22 Watt.
• EML520B-V3. Yes! It can be used, provided you can supply the higher filament current, and have a way to bias the tube right.