I am amazed at how the sound stage envelops me. I have heard wide that goes outside the speakers and I have experienced some depth of sound stage but this is new to me. The sound stage is wide and each instrument has a well defined location. What impresses me most is the way the music seems to wrap all around me. It's like I'm in the middle of sound comming from every direction. I think that experience is mostly base extension but the sound stage depth is finominal!
I was looking at Genalex Golden Lion ECC 82 B749 tubes on one web site for $115 as opposed to Genalex Golden Lion ECC 82 B749 on another site for $62. They don't quite look the same but that could be a cosmetic change only. The more expensive source advertizes "Carefully engineered to recreate all attributes of the original vintage tubes". The les expensive source advertises "Price is for a single tube with standard testing" then gives options for "Balanced Triodes (add $2.00 each), High Gain (add $2.00 each), Low Noise & Microphonics (add $4.00 each), and Matching will become available after entering 2 or more tubes". I understand matching sets of tubes but I don't understand what the other options are. The cost difference of the 2 sellers doesn't ballance out when you add the opptions for the $62 source. 62 + 8 is not 115.
I have a couple of questions. First; how do you identify long plate tubes? Second; what do these terms "Ballanced Triodes, High Gain and Low Noise and Microphonics mean relative to the purchase of these tubes?
Thanks in advance

