Cary Audio SLP-05 First Impression

Thanks @decooney ​​​​@rodman99999 for the tube rolling suggestions.   I guess I will stick with the stock tubes for now, but I'm sure eventually I will be looking for some new tubes.  That should be an adventure of its own.  😀

As with "everything sounds louder",  all I'm saying is that when the volume increases,  the top end, mid range, and bass all naturally sound louder, and the brightness becomes more noticeable and less tolerable.   

Anyway, my listening area is pretty small, and I sit fairly close to my speakers.  My average listening level is around 60's in decibels.  I rarely crank it up pass the 70's. My power amp is a Parasound JC5, and given my listening level,  I don't think it's a power issue.

Hi everyone,  I thought I would give you folks another update on my new Cary SLP-5 with Ultimate Upgrade.

I’ve been playing it for a good 8 to 12 hours a day for the last 3 weeks.  I now have almost 200 hours of burn in on the unit.   I noticed a slight improvement at around 60 hours.  I started to hear a bit more warmth, and the top end had quiet down a bit.   Still hearing that nice tight bass.   The 3D soundstage that I most enjoyed when I got my first unit doesn’t seem to stand out as much now.  I don’t know why, maybe the initial ‘wow’ factor is no longer a nice surprise because my expectation had changed, or the Ultimate Upgrade has compromised some of the 3D imaging sound.   I hope it’s more of the former.   Overall, my impression of the Ultimate Upgrade as compared to the stock unit is this:  “Refined”.   The top end is more smooth, and the bottom end is more tight.  

Anyway, here comes the bad news.  When I turned on my system to start listening to my music last Thursday morning.   No sound was coming out from my speakers.   So I checked the SLP-05, I noticed the readings of the 2 blue meters on the power unit were way off from the normal values.  The user manual suggested that the readings should be around 210 VDC and 60 mA, which is what I’ve been seeing while the SLP-05 was working.   Now I’m seeing the voltage is pegged to the max at 300 VDC and the current is down to 30 mA. It is definitely not within the normal range suggested by Cary.   I also noticed the filaments on the 6 tubes on the left side of the unit were not lighting up.  Only the 2 tubes on the right side for the headphones were lit.

So I spent a good couple of days exchanging email with Cary support.  Everything that he asked me to try did not fix the problem.  So I contacted MusicDirect, which is where I bought the unit from, hoping they will be able to let me get a replacement again.   They replied saying that I have to work this out with Cary because technically this is a customized unit because of the ‘Ultimate Upgrade’, and they are not willing to be the broker to address this issue.   But they are nice enough to offer me a refund if I decide not to keep it, and made it clear this is an exception because it is a custom order.

Now I’m stuck in a dilemma of whether sending the unit to Cary for warranty repair, or sending it back to MusicDirect for a refund.  In either case, I will have to cover the shipping cost, which is not a big deal.   I hate to have to send this back to MusicDirect,  but I also don’t want to be stuck with a potential lemon.

I do like the sound of this unit, but I now have real concern with the reliability and quality control of Cary’s products.  I’m hoping this is just a one off anomaly.   So question for you Cary product owners out there:  have you run into quality issues with Cary’s products, or has it always been mostly trouble free?   and for everyone else, feel free to chime in and express your opinions.

P.S.  Remember I sent my first unit back for a replacement because the blue power LED light was missing?   According to Cary support, after they received the unit and they powered it up, the blue light was on.   They even sent me a picture showing me that the light was on.   This is indeed very strange, because when the unit was in my possession, the LED light was clearly missing, and never lit up.   I even sent a picture to Cary and they immediately thought it was dislodged because of rough handling by Fedex.   I wondered if the trip back to Cary had knocked the LED back in place.  Again, it raised my concern of Cary’s quality control.

Thanks for reading.

Hey @jdub39, congrats on your Musical Fidelity preamp. I’m glad that you like the sound. That’s always the most important thing, no matter what other people think.

I’ve never listened to the Musical Fidelity, but the preamp sure looks good. I’m a sucker for good looks. Everything I own has to pass that ’good look’ test. 😀

I’m still deciding what to do about my Cary preamp, but I’m leaning towards sending it to Cary for warranty repair. I do love the sound, otherwise I would have just returned it and get the refund. Also, both MusicDirect and Cary Audio are great companies to work with. I have no interest in screwing them over.

BTW. the latest email exchange I have with Cary about possible root cause is that I did not insert my tubes properly and it might have cause some issue with the circuitry. I’m not an electrical engineer (but I’m a software engineer 😉), but I guess it sounds probable to me. I wonder why I was able to run it for a good 3 weeks without any issue, and it literally just stopped working overnight. For those who are knowledgeable with tube amp circuitry, please feel free to chime in. Would like to hear your opinions.

@immatthewj,  I understand your rationale on returning the unit that is not working the way it should.  I feel bad because MD had already replaced my unit once.  They actually were going to repair my first unit, but I asked for a replacement, and they were happy to accommodate me on that.  Since this is the 2nd unit, and a custom order, they are less flexible on that.  But it's nice that they offered me the option of returning for a refund on a custom order.   You are making me change my mind now 😀

This thing with the tubes not seated properly can cause failure seems bizarre to me. If this is indeed the root cause, I would argue that it is a design flaw.   As you mentioned in your previous post, the fact the tube sockets are sunken in below the surface can be problematic.  You can't see whether your tube is properly inserted.   You can only go by feel.  Being a newbie with tubes,  I tried to be extra careful of not using too much force, worrying that I might break the tube.   I think Cary should have better documentation on how to insert the tubes.

Let's see how it goes.   Hopefully it's a minor issue.

Hey @kennesawjet, not sure if you’re aware, the Herron that I have is a phono stage preamp, not a line stage preamp like the Cary SLP-05.

Anyway, If I have to characterize the sound quality of the Herron, then I would say it is very neutral. It just seems to disappear from your analog pipeline. Some people might think it lacks character. I was auditioning the Herron, Parasound JC3+, and the PS Audio Stellar phono at the time. The JC3+ was super smooth, almost to a point that it’s artificial. Whereas the Stellar sounded a little too analytical to me. Herron is definitely the most neutral sounding of the 3. I kind of wanted a tube preamp at the time, so I decided on the Herron, and have no regrets.

If you have read some of my comments in this post, the positive attributes of the Cary is the details, tight bass, and the 3D-ish imaging, and it really draws you into the music.

Hey @decooney, no MD did not offer me a 30 days to resolve with Cary, but that's not a bad idea.  I might try to ask them before I ship the unit to Cary. 

As with shipping cost, neither Cary nor MD would cover it.  To MD, this is a custom order, which technically is not returnable.   To Cary, I didn't buy it from them, so they definitely would not cover shipping.   I had already asked Cary if they would replace the unit, and they said no, for that same reason.

The current thinking of the Cary tech support person is something related to the tubes, because it wasn't seated properly.   I think is probable, and I hope it's a minor issue.   But as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts,  if not inserting the tubes properly can lead to system failure, then it is a poor design, but I'm not an electrical engineer so maybe this is typical of tube pre/power amps.

BTW.  is there anyway I can visually check if a tube is bad or not?  Just curious.

Hey @immatthewj, you’re right about my tubes. The 6 on the left side have no glow at all, only the 2 headphone tubes on the right side have glow. Other than that, the tubes seem to look fine to me visually.

As with how a poorly seated or non functional tube can affect the rest of the circuitry, this is what Cary support person said in our email exchange:

"A tube can cause an intermittent issue and maybe cause an arch in the circuit. Its possible that a tube may have been compromised and will need to be replaced. Hopefully that maybe all that is needed."

I actually don’t understand what it means by ’cause an arch in the circuit’. Does anyone understand what that means?

Yes, I’m just as curious as you are finding out what is the root cause here. Maybe it’s my wishful thinking, I feel that Cary will do right by me and do a good job fixing it. Will definitely share with you guys once I find out more.

Hey @decooney, 

1) Yes, it came with the same EH tubes as the stock unit.

2) I haven't opened the chassis to check the capacitors.   I know nothing about capacitors so I wouldn't know what to look for anyway, but I'm pretty sure they did install the upgraded caps.  Well, I hope anyway.  The shipping box does say 'Ultimate Edition' on it, and the packing slip listed the ultimate upgrade as well.  So that gave me the confidence that the upgrade was indeed installed.

3) Before the upgrade, and I mean my original unit, I had probably only run it for less than 40 hours before shipping back.  My current unit with the upgrade has about 50 hours so far.

I'm not aware that Cary has done any burn in on the unit before shipping it.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Mundorfs,  that really helps keeping my hopes up that the sound will continue to improve.   I will definitely try to be patience and let it play out.  Time for some meditation 😀

Thanks @avanti1960,  I sure hope they'll do a good job fixing my unit!   

BTW @decooney,  I took your advice and reached out to the support person at MD that's been handling my case.   She told me they will extend my try out period by the number of days my unit is out for repair, and if Cary can't fix it properly, or if there are other issues after I receive the unit, they will still take it back.   I think that's great customer service!  Much appreciated!

Thanks @decooney,  that makes sense.  Hopefully they'll do the right thing.  I would hate to go thru this again.

Thanks @avanti1960 for your tube recommendations.   I'll definitely keep that in mind.   There seems to be so many options, and my head is spinning already.  😀

Hey @decooney, thanks for the suggestions. I did read the Ultimate Upgrade description on the Cary’s website.

I’ll keep your EH 6SN7 suggestion in mind. I’m sure I’ll get that itch one day to try out some tube rolling, but I know very little about it. May I ask you what tubes are you currently using?

FWIW, my SLP-05 seemed to start sounding better last night. I noticed a little bit more warmth was coming out.

One thing I failed to mention in my ’initial impression’ post yesterday, was when I first turned on the upgraded SLP-05 and listened for the first time, my initial impression was "This doesn’t sound like tube to me, it sounds more like solid state". Note: I’m not an expert in tube sound, but do have a little bit of expectation of what tube should sound like.

Hey, maybe my state of mind has changed after all the reassuring posts from you guys. Who knows. 😀

Thanks.

Hi @jdub39, the answers to your 2 questions are yes and yes.  

To add a little more color to the 2nd answer, the Cary does seem to go a little deeper in bass, whereas the JC2 seems a little more punchy in some areas such as the drums.

Cheers!

Hey @jdub39, congratulations!  I think you'll be happy with the JC2/JC5 combo.   I recently upgraded the balanced cable between the 2 units, and it made a huge difference.  Check out this thread if you are interested.

I went for the Cary to satisfy my curiosity for tube preamps, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.   Have I not done that, I can see myself living happily with the JC2/JC5 combo.   They sound beautiful together.  I'm not planning to sell my JC2.  I like to keep it around so I have some varieties.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the comments.

@immatthewj, the JC2/JC5 are the pre/power amp combo that I’ve been using before replacing the JC2 with my new Cary. It was simply mentioned for comparison purpose.

@pwerahera, I am still very green on vacuum tubes. I guess I will tinker with it at some point in the future. Expect me to post some questions on this topic 😀

@testpilot, I agree with you on the 3 button remote. I’m already using a logitech harmony remote, and I don’t need another big remote.

There had been very few changes that I made to my system that produced such a dramatic difference. This Cary preamp is probably on top of that list.

The SLP-05 has been out for quite some time. I wonder if Cary is going to come out with a new preamp anytime soon.  I’ll be really angry if they do that in the next few months. 😀

Great.  Thanks for the info!

Hey @jdub39, I did get my replacement unit last week, and it’s still burning in. I took @decooney’s advice and decided to add the ’ultimate upgrade’ before they shipped the replacement. Knowing my own shopping habits, I know for sure I will get that itch to upgrade down the road, I figured I might as well save myself some hassles and shipping cost and get this done now.

I was going to post an update after I let it completes its burn in, which is 100 hours as recommended by Cary. Since you ask, I’ll just give you guys my initial impression.

So far, I have to say I am a little underwhelmed by this ultimate upgrade. I’m not getting the same ’wow’ factor as I did with my first unit, and I am trying to ask myself why.

Also just to remind you guys that I only had in my possession of the first unit for about 4 days, and it wasn’t even completely burned in. Here’s my impression so far:

The top end seems to be more smooth and I’m hearing no graininess at all. The first unit did have a slight graininess occasionally, which didn’t really bother me that much. However, I now notice the top end stands out more. I won’t say it is harshness. It just seems the top end is a little more accentuated, which is not what I prefer. I think it might have to do with the change in the bass response, which I’ll describe in the next paragraph.

The bass seems tighter, but at the same time it doesn’t seem to go as deep as the first unit. I wonder if it’s because a tighter sounding bass means the duration of the sound is shorter, so it doesn’t stick around as long to give you the sensation of depth. I’m just thinking out loud. I’m not an audio engineer. So far, I found the bass a little less prominent. Although it is tighter, I still wish that it is a little more punchy.

The holographic 3D soundstage that really made a huge impact when I heard it the first time in the first unit seems a little less prominent also. I wonder if it’s because my expectation is higher now.

So I’m going crazy now trying to figure out if the ultimate upgrade had changed the overall sound profile in a way that it no longer matches my hearing preference, or have I set my expectation up so high that it did not live up to it. Maybe it is a little bit of both?

I think one key factor might play a critical role to make this ultimate upgrade a different experience is that I was comparing the first unit with my existing JC2 preamp, and now I’m comparing the ultimate upgrade to the previous unit. I now wish I had kept the 2nd unit unchanged, and wait a little longer to upgrade. I wonder if that scenario will produce a different outcome.

For those who had done the upgrade, please chime in and tell me that it is all in my head. Anyway, I’m still hoping that the sound will continue to improve until it finishes burning in and possibly beyond that. I’m asking myself to be a little patient here. Or maybe my hearing will eventually burn in and adapt to this new sound 😀

@ghdprentice,  thanks for sharing your experience on break in.   I'm definitely trying to give it some time.   Will try to report back if my impression changes after it settles a bit.

@testpilot, interesting experience here.  It does help calm my nerve a little.   Last thing I want is to have the upgrade worsening the sound.  I agree this is still an awesome preamp, and it's still a keeper.

Great.  Thanks.  Lots of choices out there indeed!   I'm sure I will have a ton of questions for you guys when I'm ready to explore this tube rolling pastime. 

Hey @immatthewj,  I assume MD will give me the full refund, but I didn't ask explicitly.   

I'm pretty disappointed with this issue.  How unlucky can it be to have 2 defective units in a row, even though the first one was very minor.

Here are the things that I was told to try:

- unplug all the source connectors, and power up the unit and see if the meter readings go back to normal. 

- check the fuses on the power unit. 

- make sure the unit is not on mute. 

- he did notice from the pictures i sent that my tubes were not inserted all the way in. He was correct.  They really weren’t pushed all the way in because i was afraid if i use too much force, i might break the tubes.  I ended up trying to push them down with a little more force and they all went further in and were seated properly.  Somehow  I was able to play it while the tubes were not completely inserted for a good 3 weeks.  Anyway, this didn’t solve the problem either. 

- Finally I was told to switch my sources to different connectors.  I had a balanced source and a unbalanced source at XLR2 and Aux1.  So I changed them to XLR1 and Aux2.  That didn’t work, but I found some other problem.  After i switched the connections,  I turned the unit on at XLR1, and no sound was coming out.   I then turned the source dial towards Aux2.   It skipped over XLR2 and Aux1.  When the dial landed on Aux2, all the LED lights went off, as if I have powered off the unit, but the power unit remained on.  I then switched the dial back to Aux1, the power LED came back on, and after a minute or so, the ready light came on, much like the normal power on routine.  It was pretty messed up.  I made a youtube video and sent it to Cary, but haven’t heard back since.  Here’s the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpWUXSan4Ig

Hey @ghdprentice, i would be afraid to listen to a pair of $17k IC also.  My system is definitely not worthy for that. 😀

@avanti1960, I agree with you about ventilation for the power unit.  It does get very warm.  My cabinet is actually open on the back, and I installed 2 AC Infinity cabinet fans on the back of the power unit to keep it cool.  I’ve been checking how hot does the power unit get.   It actually is not too bad.  It feels warm but definitely not hot to the touch.   Hopefully this is not the root cause of my issue.  

It’s interesting that you brought up listening to your SS preamp.  That’s what i’ve been doing the last few days also.  In my case it’s the Parasound JC2.  I realized that  it sounds pretty good.  It’s more laid back than the Cary, but it’s very easy and comfortable to listen to.   Cary is definitely more detailed and forward, and can really draw you to the music.  They both have their own strengths, and it comes down to personal preference, and what you’re in the mood for.  

The way I would contrast the 2 preamps is that listening to the Cary feels like you are sitting at the fifth row from the stage, whereas the JC2 feels like you are sitting at the 15th row.  

Hey @immatthewj,  FWIW, the possibility of the rectifier tube went bad was one of the discussion points I had with Cary support.   He initially was going to ask me to open up the power unit to check the rectifier tube.   Later on he decided that it is most likely not the rectifier tube.  He said if it were the case that the rectifier tube was bad, then the readings of the 2 meters would both be at zero.

The fact that the current was at 30 mA, and not the normal 60+ mA seems to suggest to me that the tubes are not drawing enough current, and are possibly malfunctioned.  Then again, what do I know.

@decooney,  thanks for the suggestion!   At this point, I don't have the appetite to keep trying different things.   I think I'm just going to get this thing shipped out to Cary this weekend.   Will definitely update you guys when I find out what the issue is.

@jallan, thanks for the info.  I hope you're right that it's a small issue.  I hope that whatever the problem and the fix is, it won't affect the overall sound quality, and I also hope to regain some confidence on the long term reliability of this unit.

@jsal3689, thanks for sharing your story.  Good to know that Cary cares about their customers.  I've been listening to my Parasound JC2 this past week, and realize I still enjoy the sound.    It's definitely more laid back than the Cary, but very easy and comfortable to listen to.   I don't plan to sell my JC2.  I like to keep it for varieties.

@avanti1960, thanks for sharing your experience.   Do you remember what was your problem in your case?  I don't know if you saw the video I sent in one of my previous posts, it showed how the control unit just powered off when I switched to a different source.  That seems super weird to me.  I wonder if it is caused by the same issue.

Thanks again to all you guys for your comments and suggestions.  At the very least, it helps to calm my nerve a little.  😀

Hi folks, I just want to post an update on my SLP-05 that was sent back to Cary for repair. I finally got it back this past weekend, and I’ve been playing it everyday and so far so good. Everything seems to work fine without a hitch. I hope this would be it. If you’ve been following this thread, you probably know that this was the second time I sent back my unit. The first one I received had a missing LED light, and Music Direct sent me a replacement. This second unit had 2 problems and I ended up sending it to Cary for warranty repair at my own expense.

Anyway, there were 2 problems with the unit. At first I thought they were related. Turned out that they were not. Here are the 2 problems and what Cary Support found and did for the repair:

The first problem was simply no sound coming out of the unit, and abnormal readings on the meters in the power unit. During troubling shooting with Cary Support while the unit was still in my possession, he noticed my tubes were not inserted fully into the control unit. Indeed he was right. I followed the instruction sheet of not forcing the tubes into the unit to avoid breaking the tube. So I stopped as soon as I felt resistance. Turned out that there was a good 1/2 inch of travel more to go. Anyway I managed to inserted all of them all the way into the unit, but that did not fix the problem.

The second problem was discovered during trouble shooting. Cary Support advised me to try different inputs. I have 1 balanced and 1 unbalanced inputs. So I moved them both to different inputs on the unit. My unbalanced input was moved to Aux2. As I switched input using the input selector to Aux2, the control unit would power off by itself, and when I switched out of it, it would go back to the power on sequence.

For the first issue, Cary Support was unable to reproduce it. The first thing they did after receiving my unit was to plug in all the tubes and played the unit. The unit played fine, and the meter readings were at normal range of 240 VDC and 60 mA. I could not believe it. After some back and forth email exchanges with Cary, the only difference I could come up with was that I did not unplug all the tubes first before reinserting them all back in properly. I simply pushed them all in one by one. Whereas when Cary received the unit, all the tubes were removed and packaged separately, so they had to reinsert all of them. Regardless of the difference, I tried to push for an explanation on why I was able to play the unit for 3 straight weeks with improperly seated tubes, and all of a sudden it just stopped working. Finally, the answer he gave me was ‘No idea!’, followed with some other explanations.

For the second issue, they indeed found an issue with one of the soldered joints, and this is what Cary wrote on my RMA in their RMA website:

"Inspected unit and was unable to replicate customers stated issue of incorrect meter readings. Confirmed customers stated issue of unit turning to "not ready" when AUX 2 input was selected. Inspected input boards and found the cold solder joint for the AUX 2 relay in the left input board. Corrected diode orientation and unit is functioning correctly with meters reading ~240v and 60mA. Reflowed solder on 12v filament regulators in power supply. Unit is set for burn in and will perform final qc in the morning."

I don’t quite understand everything above, and I tried to get a better understanding of what was wrong and why they have to ‘correct diode orientation’ and ‘reflowed solder on 12v filament regulators’, and all I got was some general answer on some regulations in UK that require using solder without lead, and lead free solder requires higher temperature to get a better joint.

Anyway, this would not make an interesting story without any surprise, would it? So here it is:

On the day that I thought Cary would be shipping my unit back, I got an invoice in my email for $310, which included $110 bench fee, $30 RMA administration fee, and $170 for shipping the unit back to me. WTF? Needless to say, I was furious. I already paid for shipping going there, and they are now charging me for something that should be covered under warranty. I immediately email Cary Support, and his reply to me was:

"Yes it would be covered under warranty, but there’s nothing wrong with it. We just spent 3 days and a great deal of time proving the unit is not defective. I agree that if the product is defective we would make the repairs under warranty. We stand behind our products. This is not the case."

So I sent him the comment that was written in my RMA that clearly stated that a soldered joint was bad, and then I didn’t hear back for a good 3 or 4 hours. He apologized and said there was a technical issue with their RMA website, and they will be shipping back my unit with no charge. Problem solved.

So, here are my thoughts on this whole experience:

For the first issue, an answer of ’no idea’ is simply not acceptable. I don’t expect the support team to know everything, but I think the proper thing to do is to file an issue ticket to engineering team, and have them reproduce the problem and perhaps make appropriate design change, or at the very least, issue a new FAQ to help customers address this issue without having them shipping the unit back. Also, improving the setup instruction sheet would also be helpful. To be fair, I don’t know if support had contacted engineering team or not. Maybe this is part of their process. If so, it would have been nice to let me know that engineering team is looking at the issue, instead of a ’no idea’ answer.

For the second issue, it makes me wonder why this wasn’t caught before the new unit was shipped to me. Did they not do proper QC testing before shipping? I didn’t raise this concern with them, maybe I should have. It is entirely possible that I would have never come upon this issue if I wasn’t trouble shooting my first issue. I simply never did bother switching my input to Aux2. It would have been a bummer had I finally found this issue after warranty has expired.

As with the issue of the invoice. I accepted that it was an honest mistake, but the answer I got back really made me think hard on how Cary treats their customers. Do they really think that I’m happy to spend $150 to ship a perfectly functioning unit back for no reason? In the case of the first issue, I agree I bear some responsibilities of making sure the tubes are all inserted properly, but I also can argue that the instruction sheet was insufficient, and they were unable to help me resolve the problem while the unit was in my possession. To charge your customer for what could have been a warranty repair, even though it was a setup mistake just doesn’t seem right to me, especially for a product at this price level. That says a lot about how much do they care about customer satisfaction vs how much money they can squeeze out of their pockets. At the end, this was resolved as it should have, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, that’s the whole story. I am not trying to trash Cary’s reputation. They do make an awesome product, and I guess most customers are happy with their support. FWIW, the support person I’ve been dealing with are mostly pleasant to deal with and very responsive on his replies, although I don’t always get a straight answer from him. I’m only sharing my own experience, and it might very well be an isolated case. I'm just happy I’m getting a fully functional unit back, I hope I don’t have to report back for any new issue going forward.

Finally, just one more thing about the sound quality. I remember I could barely contain my excitement when I had my first unit for less than 48 hours. I still do like the sound a lot, but I wish the top end can calm down a little. One of the strengths of the SLP-05 is the mid range, it really makes the vocal to stand out and makes it sounds like you are listening to live music. Occasionally, I find it a bit bright at the top end, especially with female vocals. The unit sounds great at low volume with all the details, but when i crank it up, everything sounds louder which includes the top end, and that can be a little much for my old ears with tinnitus. The unit has about 300 hours of burn in at this point. I wonder if the top end can still continue to calm down with more time on it, or if I can address this with some tube rollings. Feel free to give your thoughts on this.

Thanks for reading.

"Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces…" -- George Harrison

Hey @blkwrxwgn, yes I did some tubes rolling on my SLP-05.

I’m like you, I also found the stock EH a bit too bright for me. So I contacted Brent Jessee. Great guy to deal with BTW. He recommended the RCA black plates. So I bought 3 pairs to change out the 2 pairs of gain stage tubes, and 1 pair for the balanced buffer.

The RCA’s are a lot warmer which I like. It took away the top end edge, but also with it some details. The bass are OK, but it lacks some slam. I then changed the balanced buffer tubes back to the EH, and the system sounded better. It had more details without the brightness. I’ve been quite happy with that combination.

And then after a couple of months, I decided to try some NOS Ken Rad to replace the RCA at the gain stage. Most comments I read about the Ken Rad are how good their bass sound. So I bought a couple of pairs from Brent Jessee. Unfortunately, they didn’t work out. There were so much microphonics literally 2 minutes into the music that it was completely unlistenable. So I returned them and just kept my RCA’s.

A few months ago, I decided to give the much raved about Linlai E-6SN7 tubes a try. So I bought a pair to replace the EH at the balanced buffer stage, and I like it quite a bit. Better sound stage and tighter and lower bass.

So this is where I am now with my tubes, and probably live with it for a while.

Good to know about your experience with NOS Mullard rectifier. Can you tell me exactly the model/year if you remember? I did change my rectifier tube to the Gold Lion Genelax as recommended by some member here, but did not hear much difference. Also, let us know how the Sylvania work out for you after you burn them in.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

@immatthewj,  great.  thanks for sending this.  I’ll check it out.  

Hey @jmbumgarner01, thanks for sharing your interesting experience with the Sylvania tubes.  Something to consider when i feel the urge to do some tube rolling again.   

Also, i’ve read quite a few comments on the stock Slovak rectifier tube not lasting very long.   I guess it’s really not that well made.