Just had an interesting few weeks tube rolling in the Valve Audio Exclame 100 amp. When I bought the unit I had it at Schalk's place for a once over. This included fitting a new JJ Gold tube. Had the amp running for months with no hassles at all, sounding great with my Mytek Brooklyn DAC and Tannoy Saturn S10 speaker combo. I then had the opportunity to buy a Philips Miniwatt SQ tube and fitted that. Had the amp running it for about 5 days, but I pulled the plug on the Miniwatt. Way too brittle at the top end with my DAC/speaker combo. But now the bug had bitten me, so I decided to try some more tubes. I bought a NOS Siemens CCa tube (grey shields, O-getter, gold pins) for R 2500 from a seller in Germany. At the same time Francois (Franzar) pinged me about some Mullard tubes. I bought one from him as well. The Mullard arrived before the Siemens so that went in first. What a magical tube! Beautiful tops and great low end weight with the famed 3D soundstage. The Siemens arrived last week so I swapped the Mullard for the Siemens and ran that for the last few days. Same brittle top issue with the DAC/speaker combo, although not as pronounced. If you own an Exclame and want to liven up a system with recessed tops without being tiring, this is the tube for you. I gave it almost 100 hours in my system to give it a fighting chance but tonight I swapped back to the Mullard, my favourite. So, anyone wanting a Siemens CCa or Philips Miniwatt SQ to try, pop me a PM.
