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Valvo
Valvo ECC82 12AU7 Matched Pair 30° Getter Long Plates - Hamburg 1957/58 K62 -NOS
Valvo ECC82 12AU7 Matched Pair 30° Getter Long Plates - Hamburg 1957/58 K62 -NOS
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$600.00 USD
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Product Summary
Compared to their 45° angled big brother, these "ultra clarity" tubes are much more merciful at lossy digital sound sources such as high-definition streaming video/audio. Yet distortion in lossy sound during playback can still be heard. Dedicated CD transport or lossless playback on PC/Mac (not on mobile devices) are recommended if you want to fully unleash these tubes' amazing power in your system. Phono, if available, is highly recommended to be used as sound source because analog input is lossless by definition.
Sound Qualities
To get everyone on the same page, we will be comparing these to the Hamburg-made Valvo ECC82's with the regular getter support only, which is already an excellent choice for audiophiles looking for distinctive German tube sound: the grip is tighter with a great deal of substance added to the overall sound presentation, especially to the midrange, which feels much warmer and more intimate; the 30° getter support seems to have "bent" the sound stage as well and you are presented with a flattened panoramic view of the sound stage, which is holographic but much wider and holds so much more information: everything can be heard (or rather "seen"), whether you knew they existed before or not, or whether you think they should exist or not; the naturalness of sound is not heard on any other tubes in the sense that these tubes tell you what IS and what IS NOT in your sound, e.g. you can tell the sound of natural rain in some movies from the sound of fake rain (water poured from hoses above the stage) in other movies; the clarity of sound is "clinical" - as in how your doctor would say you are either sick or not sick and absolutely no muddiness or ambiguity in between should be allowed - perhaps that's why they can get punishing (luckily not as much as the 45° angled version) to lossy digital sound sources; the musicality is unequalled as by now the only thing left in your music for you to hear is EVERYTHING in your music as long as the sound source is right.
Professional Sound Evaluation
The pair worked wonderfully and sounded terrific in our professional studio setup for monitoring.
- Input: Cambridge Audio CXC V2 dedicated CD transport + Schiit Audio Bifrost 2 Multibit DAC
- Amplification: Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies (3rd gen) Balanced Headphone Amplifier
- Output: Focal Clear MG Pro open-back headphones
Our full tube sound review was written 100% based on the actual listening experience while this pair of tubes were running in the system described above.
Professional testing & sound evaluation
NO shorts, leakage or gas. NO noise or microphonics.
Both tubes tested NOS (100%+ nominal mutual conductance) on a reliable recently calibrated Mercury 2000 tube tester with the following results (mutual conductance both in uMhos and in percentage of nominal):
Tube 1: 3,150/3,010 (105%/101%)
Tube 2: 3,150/3,480 (105%/116%)
Good tubes start at 2000 and new tubes (incl. NOS/NIB) 3,000 - 3,100, and the Mercury 2000's rated mutual conductance (nominal) for new tubes is 3,000. Test result can also be seen in the pictures. In case you wonder what all these numbers mean to your sound experience, it's actually quite straightforward: mutual conductance directly translates to a tube's ability to amplify sound, so the higher these numbers the stronger.
Appearance & cosmetic condition
Besides the world-class sound characteristics, we treasure this pair also because the excellent condition of inscriptions on the tubes given its age. The identical 3-letter (Pre-1961 Hamburg date code is 100% visible on both tubes:
k62 D8K (k62 = ECC82 Production gen #2, D = Hamburg, Germany, 8 = 1958, K = November)
k62 D7H (k62 = ECC82 Production gen #2, D = Hamburg, Germany, 7 = 1957, H = August)
Packaging
This pair of tubes will be packaged in the Original Valvo ECC82 tube boxes.
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