Best ECL83 for HD83 ?

[KennyK]

what, in your opinion would be the best ECL83 in the Headphone Amp?

the old description on the old WAD site said that mullard were supplied because they were the best. I got Philips with mine, and the ones in the picture in the shop section here look identical to mine. so I'm assuming that philips were latterly supplied by WAD.

I was looking on watford's site and they have two different ones listed - the Mullard and the Amperex. both are the same price. the Amperex description claims "These were the most popular upgrade valve for the world audio design ECL83 kit amp. We sold out of these many years ago, or so i thought and these come to light at a recent stock check"

so should I buy a pair? or should I buy the mullards? or should I stick with the philips?

[Black Stuart]

Kenny,
I have mullards - and they are nice, very nice. I've no idea about the Amperex.Perhaps someone else can oblige.

BlCK sTUART

[NickW]

Hi Kenny,
Can't help really. I have Mullards, and as Stuart says, they are very nice. Its not too hard to find some - like Watford, and I also picked some up from a trade fair last year in Birmingham. Nick

[KennyK]

yes, that's where I saw the Mullards. they've also got the amperex ones, which got me thinking. I tried to phone but they're on holiday.

so the Mullards would be an improvement over the Philips ones? Not that there's anything wrong with the sound of the philips ones as far as I can tell... that said I've not even run the HD83 in yet. but I don't want to miss out if either of these (Mullard / Amperex) are going to be a significant improvement.

[John Caswell]

Hi KennyK,
It is quite likely that the Mullard and Philips valves are from the same factory as the two companies are the one and the same and used to interchange valves willy nilly.

John aka Dr John

[KennyK]

thanks once again John. I may take a punt on the amperex, since they cost the same as the mullards at watford. it's always handy to have some spares...

[naimbrain]

I bought some Mullards to replace the supplied Phillips, there was no appreciable difference in the sound so I'd back the theory that they're the same valve. I'm having a quick scout about to see if I can find some cryo treated valves for the HD83, has anyone tried cryo treated valves either in the HD83 or elsewhere? I'm thinking of trying cryos in the HD83 because two ECL83s may not be too expensive to test the cryo theory before shelling out for quad matched EL34s for my power amp.

[naimbrain]

Further to previous posting re cryo ECL83s. I idn't find any cryo treated ECL83s (didn't look to hard though), however cryo treatment for ECL83s looks like it'll cost about £7 a piece from Cryogenic Services Limited. Since I've got a spare pair of Phillips sitting around I may well pay the £15 odd quid just to find out if it does make a difference. I'll post with the results.

[Dave Senior]

Hi

I bought a couple of the Amperex valves from Watford in 2006. They look (and sound?) exactly the same as Mullards. One packed up after a few months so my advoce would be to stick with what you've got.

Dave

[naimbrain]

Originally Posted by naimbrain

Since I've got a spare pair of (ECL83s) sitting around I may well pay the £15 odd quid just to find out if (cryogenic treatment) does make a difference. I'll post with the results.

To avoid hijacking this thread I've created a separate 'Cryogenics, does it work?' thread where I'll post results (but I'll also post back to this thread re the effect on HD83 performance).