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Old 13th Oct 2017, 3:27 pm   #132
stevehertz
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,809
Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Mark, all understood. However, just to throw a spanner into the works, in my other life I am a long serving guitarist - acoustic and electric. As you may well imagine, I have bought and used many different guitar amplifiers including expensive vintage models. For many years, I didn't believe that the valves in these amps made much, if any difference. One day, unhappy with the sound of a Mesa Boogie pre amp, I decided to swap the Chinese ECC83s for old (but tested good) Mullard ones. Now, you have to understand that what I am about to say refers to the sound when the pre amp is driven into distortion - as is normally the case with such a high gain guitar amplifier. With the stock Chinese valves in place the distortion characteristics were gritty, harsh, odd harmonics, thin - just generally nasty sounding. When I put the Mullards in, I could not believe the difference! It was, honestly, chalk and cheese. Now, the sound was sweet, 'choral', rich and meaty. So, just to be reiterate, I'm not commenting on how valves compare when run within their 'hifi capabilities', but certainly, when used in valve guitar amps in distortion mode, the difference is vast. And in that respect, I have over the years conducted many, many tests and comparisons and it has to be said, original Mullard ECC83s sound better than any other ECC83 valve. It's a similar story with other valves such as EL84s and EL34s. I don't know why, but there's definitely something about the construction of the original Mullards that makes them sweet sounding when driven into distortion in guitar valve amp.

This article may throw some light on it, and in any case it is interesting reading re valve construction: http://www.effectrode.com/signal-tub...al-comparison/
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