I also avoided the shootout, thirty two times 'New York, New York' in a row is too much for any man. This was actually a nice time to do some quiet listening and compare the GM70 with WWII British military Vortexion 6V6 amps. The latter had a very lovely midrange but the bass was lacking. Which was not necessarily a bad thing given the room conditions which resulted in very colored and boomy bass (and this with Quad ESLs from all speakers 
). I still love the GM70 SE on these speakers.
We did do a (very small sampled) 300B shootout which confirmed earlier comparisons done by me and DHT Rob (amongst others): the WE new production is top quality. Very very nice sound indeed.
). I still love the GM70 SE on these speakers. We did do a (very small sampled) 300B shootout which confirmed earlier comparisons done by me and DHT Rob (amongst others): the WE new production is top quality. Very very nice sound indeed.
But they still produce? I mean WE. It seems that they are not. Not that I would buy any. 😀 At this stage.
Did you ever get your GM70 up and running? Mine is still in the parts collecting stage.
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I know you can still get recent production WE, and no I'm not buying any either. Too expensive and there are so many nice cheap valves out there.
The state of my GM70 amp is pretty much like yours I'm afraid :-D
The state of my GM70 amp is pretty much like yours I'm afraid :-D
Morgan Jones amp is a beast, that output tube sucks big current. Probably that was a regulator tube ( double triode?), the more current the better.
I'm not an expert in this xformer area, and I didn't really make detailed notes. One thing I remember though was that one 'unknown' transformer hidden in a tea can (or was it a washing powder can?) did make it to the last 6 or 8 before it lost a pairing. By that time, a lot of heavy boat anchors had already bitten the dust. So the tea can was opened and showed an unassuming, puny little piece of iron...
One other interesting 'xformer' was actually a breadboard holding a transformer, a tube and some other ancillary electronics to 'mimic' a SE transformer. IIRC it also did quite well towards the finals, but not without some protests from the audience.
I also would like to know what the correlation was with the measurements, I didn't quite get what they did with those numbers. Maybe they just tested them for shorts and unlikely impedance values.
jd
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Of course, being very aware of the usual group dynamics and psycho-acoustics involved in these events, I kept track of the outcomes of each paired test. The first 8 or 10 all were 'B preferred'. Someone else apparently did the same and mentioned it aloud. Sure enough, the next test came out 'A preferred'. Coincidence? Possible.😉
jd
jd
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The gray hair and paunch percentages in that crowd is a sobering reminder of where this market is heading.
L 2 R: Morgan Jones, Mr. SY, and the Guy Who Provided the Goodies (Emmanuel Lassaigne)...😉
Actually there was only 6 of us but we got carried away...
jd
Actually there was only 6 of us but we got carried away...
jd
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Interesting - quite a row of dead soldiers. What's the tawny-looking stuff in the glass? It looks a little dark for champagne.
Jean Michel Le Cléac'h did some pragmatic measurements:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Soon to be published I beleive.
Yves. (OPT N° 26 😎)
To be clear, the Dead Soldiers were at Cedric Bouchard, in Celles-sur-Ource. All pinot noir based. Emmanuel Lassaigne's specialty was blanc de blanc, all chardonnay.
Did you get any shots at Perseval?
did you ever see such a snapshot of "a certain type"...😀
Now I know what my Significant Other means when she talks about "the look"🙄
Damn - wish I was there adding to the overall impression (and keeping the local caves financial).
Now I know what my Significant Other means when she talks about "the look"🙄
Damn - wish I was there adding to the overall impression (and keeping the local caves financial).
One fellow sitting in front of me (with hearing aids, yet!) would snore loudly through the presentations.
I wonder what the foam on top of Jean-Michel's scope is for? Anti-diffraction?😀
I guess that with an audience large as that room acoustics influences the results much more than transformer differences. 😕
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