[prepress]

Further impressions on the GLs:

Last night it was a video session, with tracks from The Moody Blues at the Royal Albert Hall, Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood at Madison Square Garden, and the move Justice League.

I began to get a bit of a headache while listening to the concert discs. That didn't happen with the Black Diamonds or JJ Gold-Plated High Performance tubes on these same discs. The same thing happened when playing the Moody Blues disc previously. It seems to relate to the high frequencies. I hesitate to call the sound "bright;" perhaps "hard" is more descriptive. But at the same time there was, particularly on the Clapton/Winwood disc, a better sense of realism in the sound of instruments over the BDs, though not a dramatic one. I'd have to go back to the BDs to verify that.

Wednesday evening was a CD session while I was cooking. I came into the living room to listen periodically. That session was a Count Basie comp on Verve, Count Basie Plays the Blues, and various tracks from the Billboard Top Rock & Roll Hits series. I hadn't played the Basie disc though the BDs so this may be unfair, but I was impressed with how realistic the instruments sounded overall. The Billboard material exposed a complaint I had about the GLs before; that pesky bright-sounding '60s stuff that forces me to turn the volume down, as I did that evening. The JJs are still the best at taming these bright recordings, due most likely to being warmer tubes and with a more forward low end and weight in the mids.

As for GLs versus BDs, the preliminary impression is they are similar in overall sound to my ears, with the GLs having a slight edge in detail on what I've played so far, but giving up just a bit on the bottom to the BDs. Still, the GL's low end is quite satisfying. I've misplaced my Atlanta Symphony CD with my "ultimate " reference track "Fanfare for the Common Man." That will get played when I find it (another important reason to straighten up!).