Lamm LP2 and WE417A tubes

I currently own the LP 2 Deluxe with WE 417a tubes and find their performance improves resolution vs the stock Raytheons. I believe Lamm designed it for the WE 417a and intended at one point to put these tubes in the LP12, but their cost and microphonic nature made this decision not practical for a consumer product.

I own several phono stages and have used numerous phono stages including the IO Eclipse with 2 power supplies, which I enjoyed immensely, but think the Lamm has its own signature, which can or can not compliment a system. If your system is boarding on excessive resolution, you will need to voice your LP 12 with different, power supply tubes, power cords or interconnects, etc to see if it will be a good fit. In fact in some cases it not be the best fit with your other components.

It has enough gain for most cartridges, but not the really tough ones such as Koetsu.

When properly dialed in it can offer exceptional bass response and transparency, which are at the top of the class.

I really do not believe Lamm was trying to deceive anyone in mentioning the 417a as I believe he designed the unit with this tube in mind, but it was not practical in the end, as noted above.

This thread is 5 years old and more or less dead. But, the LP2 was made for datas of the WE417A, it is a superior sounding tube. I bought them with a Mullard 6x4, they last a few thousand hours. The LP2 does not burn tubes (compared to other Designs).
It uses Jensen Transformers, they are better than most out there from other manufacturers, one reason why this unit sounds like the real thing (when the other parts of the System can show this).
When the stock gain is not enough for your low output cartridge, you can ask Lamm to replace them with higher gain Jensens. He will do it.
Also when you have some preferences for the Impedance of your favorite cartridge (for example 2-9 Ω ...)

A good Phonostage can't be rated on its gain only. For example, on phono stage design, a scratch or bit of dirt on the LP can send a high-amplitude high- frequency transient to the phono stage, and some phono stages will momentarily overload or run into slewing problems because of this. And when an amplification circuit overloads or slews, it usually takes some time for it to recover, which will exaggerate the audible consequences of the LP scratch. In other words, you want a phono stage with high overload margin and very good stability in the ultrasonic range (at least up to 100kHz).
Sometimes other "problems" are responsible, when the "Sound" does not meet the Phantasy of the Listener. For example, Lyra cartridges are designed on the principles of dumping mechanical energy as quickly and completely as possible into the tonearm.
If the tonearm has a good armtube structure and the bearings have been adjusted carefully for minimal play and are solid, dumping mechanical energy into the tonearm will be fine. If the tonearm doesn't have a good armtube structure or there are bearing problems, dumping mechanical energy into the tonearm will obviously cause problems.
The LP2 Performance has to be seen in combination with the Gain from the connected Preamp and the connected amps. When there is no mismatch you can use every cartridge > 0.22mV, I used a 0.25mV Miyabi without any problem for years.

Come on Logenn, after more than 5 years of not using WE tubes his web page still says "Its unique circuitry utilizes specially selected very low noise high trans-conductance Western Electric 417A / 5842 vacuum tubes."

Any reasonable person would expect to find WE tubes based on that statement. No matter what his original intention was after 5 years he should have corrected this. By leaving it that way it is clear he wants you to think you are getting WE.

.

Herman- I can see why you think they are being shifty; the marketing for the LP 2 certainly could be more prescise, but having owned Lamm products and receiving support from the factory would lead me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Valdamir sets new standards for service IMO; and his wife immediately will notify you of any progress. In fact he will contact you while out of the country if you have a problem to support you, until he can personally observe and rectify the issue.

I sent my Lp 2 in for service and he telephoned me to let me know it would be ready in a day or two and that he was pleased I switched to the WE 417a tubes as they were made for each other. I quized him on why they were not standard and he said too difficult to obtain in quantity and too costly. How many pre amps do you know come with NOS tubes anyway?

I also had an issue with the ML 2 and his level of commitment leads me to think they are not wired that way. I can tell you horror stories about other tube manufactures.

What Logenn said - superb service from Lamm is something I've come to expect. I have never gotten even a whiff of "marketing-ese" from them.