Congrats on your new amp, wish I was still in the area to hear it in action.
Given your amp history - Carver Crimson, Marantz Ruby - I would have thought the HiFi Rose would be the next logical step?😀
So I bought the Willsenton R-800i
After I bought the Klipsch Cornwall IVs recently it became apparent quite quickly that to make it really shine it needs a tube amp to drive it. (For me at least.) After doing some (=endless) research, considering the options (budget, shops nearby carrying models I´m interested in, etc.) and also asking around on this very forum I decided to go for the Willsenton R-800i. None of my friends here shares my excitement for audio stuff or even has a comparable system, so what´s now in my living room is the one tube amp I know. And I´m delighted. Together with the speakers it gives the music the presence and glow that I so desired.
Of course I can tell that there´s more potential in this amp and I already exchanged some of the stock tubes. There are more on the way and I can´t wait to test them. For now my financial means are a bit limited so I´m not ordering Western Electric and Takatsuki 300Bs just for the sake of comparing them. In fact I´m waiting with those a bit and go for the others first.
Searching online I find a lot of information on English language forums. Somehow tube rolling is not discussed as much on the German forums I checked though – and out of curiosity (and because they were pretty cheap) I went for both West- and East-German ECC83s and a fairly random mix of other tubes from the US and the Soviet Union. I´m waiting for them to arrive and not being able to read about some of them it raises my curiosity how they will sound. Maybe crappy, maybe not so bad, maybe even very good. I´ll see. Tube rolling will take some time and I don´t mind. The amp is there to stay for quite a while.
There´s an exhaustive thread on the Willsenton amps and fitting tubes here but since I found people´s comments on this forum so helpful I´m looking forward to hear from you. I´m open for tube recommendations and would like to hear anyone´s experience with the Willsenton R-800i. Or maybe someone has questions?
As for the tubes:
805 – stock replaced for Cossor
300B – stock
6SN7 – stock replaced for Sylvania GTBs, waiting for Fonon NOS (Soviet, 1979, a bargain for 10€)
12AX7 – stock replaced with current Mullard model, waiting for West German ones from AEG and Telefunken, East German ones from RSD and Funkwerk Erfurt (both used) and also Sylvania JAN 5751 NOS (a military model)
5U4G – stock, waiting for RCA NOS black plate and Svetlana NOS „Coke Bottle“
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@chmaiwald , thank you!! I should note (for whatever it might be worth) that I "upgraded" the crossover networks in the Cornwall IVs, damped the horn mid and horn tweeter, and installed proper binding posts. Some may hear a difference some may not. I used high quality Cardas solder, VCap ODOM caps throughout, Path Audio resistors, and some decent binding posts from Partsconnexion. I did not change any values/tolerances with the swapped parts. Also chmaiwald, I think you are spot on about the bias setting. Strangely, biasing it at ~90ma, as opposed to 120ma, did not result in things sounding sluggish, slow, or out of place. @charles1dad, you are wise. I have always enjoyed your feedback and guidance. There are folks on here that seem to want to litigate everything--you seem to be the opposite and are always helping and sharing knowledge! Thank you! @djspinner , you are correct! I hate to admit it. I'm guilty of making too many lateral moves. Maybe I just sell all these amps and buy a Jadis or Japanese tube amp! But my goal is not to have a big collection but rather find different pieces to allow different "sonic meals" if you will. No piece of gear is really ever perfect so I like to experiment and have different presentations.
Last night's listening session went way too late! 2:30 am. |
@djspinner, you're welcome to pop by if you are in the Chicago area! |
- 127 posts total