Have been doing a lot of tube rolling, testing, and reconfiguring during the safer at home period. Have had a lot of fun.
Continuing to play around more with my Inspire SE EL84. Moved it into my bedroom, 12' x 12', where I don't need a lot of power and I don't tend to play music as loudly there. I'm driving Focal Aria 906 bookshelf speakers, spec'ed at 89.5db but which measure at 87.5. The Focals received very positive reviews from The Absolute Sound, What Hi-Fi?, and Soundstage.
Normally I wouldn't think to drive a speaker like this with just 4-5 wpc, but it works nicely. When I tried the same pairing in my large living room a few years ago, it failed, with the Inspire frequently going into clipping on low bass notes. In my smaller bedroom and positioned closer to walls, the bass is surprisingly full and satisfying.
While tube rolling, I found a new favorite, the new production Genalex Gold Lion EL84. I have a number of vintage and new EL84/6BQ5, some which fetch fairly high prices when they are real NOS. I haven't finished my comparisons in my new setup, but so far I'm really liking these new tubes.
I also found that I get a fuller bass when using a 5U4GB rectifier as compared to a 5Y3 or 5V4GA. I know the 5U4GBs are rated to provide more voltage and current, so I guess that isn't a big surprise, but at times with some tubes I perceived that there was a little more goodness/sweetness with the 5V4GA. With the Gold Lion EL84 I don't hear that difference, the 5U4GB matches the tonality while providing more bass.
Just finished listening to Linda Ronstadt, beautiful vocals, nicely balanced bass without that annoying mid-bass boominess, and good detail & imaging on highs without being harsh. Very pleasant.
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