The London Sun For Reasons Unknown - Desktop Audio Update 27Sep16

The first compliment of tubes have been acquired for a comparison in the new Vali 2 headphone amp. Stock tube is a 6827 Canadian recent production (from who I don't know)... all tubes are 6922/EC88 compatible. I paid ~$75 for purchases made which include:

• a NOS (new old stock) RCA 6BQ7A from US/1983,
• a USED Amperex 6DJ8 from Holland/1965,
• a NOS Voskhod 6H23N from Russia (military)/1972,
• a NOS Sylvania 6DJ8 from US/1980,
• a NOS Tesla ECC88 from Czech Republic/1970.

To go more expensive and rare will require >$40 each and some folks spend thousands - dunno if I'll go there. I choose test tracks not for specific fidelity or range but for stuff I like. It's probably a dumb test for fidelity as I first look for clever songwriting - except The Killers who have style not songwriting. I do add a Flim & The BBs track for range and dynamics specific listening (heck it's got a 22Hz note in there). Test 368Kbps tracks include some of my favorites like:

• Wheatus/The London Sun/Too Soon Monsoon/2005
• Wheatus/The Truth I Tell Myself/Too Soon Monsoon/2005
• Wheatus/Punk Ass Bitch/ Wheatus/2001
• The Killers/Miss Atomic Bomb/Battleborn/2012
• The Killers/Spaceman/Day & Age/2008
• The Killers/For Reasons Unknown/Sam's Town/2006
• The Killers/Smile Like You Mean It/Hot Fuss/2004
• Big Star/The Battle of El Goodo/Record #1/1978
• New Pornographers/The Laws Have Changed/Electric Verison/2003
• New Pornographers/Crash Years/Together/2010
• New Pornographers/Letter From An Occupant/Mass Romantic/2003
• Essex Green/This Isn't Farmlife/Cannibal Sea/2006
• Vampire Weekend/Oxford Comma/Vampire Weekend/2008
• Vampire Weekend/Holiday/Contra/2010
• Vampire Weekend/Diane Young/Modern Vampires of the City/2013
• Flim & The BBs/Funhouse/Big Notes/1985

So listening to 90 minutes of stuff over and over requires listening without fatigue - which was a primary measure I used in comparing. At the end of the day, hearing the differences is hard. All subjective notions include:

• Listening Fatigue (gotta be able to keep the headset on)
• Low Noise (noise floor - don't want hiss or hum on quiet parts)
• Dynamics (speed of recovery to play the next note/passage)
• Power Over Range (highs and lows strong)
• Smooth v Harsh (self explanatory but it's a feeling)
• Midrange-Forward (if any, prefer forward voices and clarity there)

It was a good test and very hard to discern differences in many cases... my preference at this point is:

1. Tesla... best balance of all factors; clean, quiet, quick and smooth
2. Sylvania... great low end; not as clean as Tesla in mid-highs though
3. Voskhod... strong
4. Canada... cold
5. RCA... thin
6. Amperex... super smooth but used tube made this less powerful - not a good compare