By Thorsten Lösch,  June 10, 2000

Re-printed here with kind permission  of  the  author.   Thanks Thorsten!

Hi folks,

I had today the choice to compaer a few different 2A3's, also against some 45's and 300B's.... This was not an overly rigid evaluation, but I think the results are usefull.

The Valves tested where:

KR 2A3 (these where broken in for about 50 Hours only)

Golden Dragon 2A3 (these are the cheapest chinese bi-plate ones from the Shuang Factory, these have many 100 Hours on them)

Sovtek 2A3 (these are fairly recent, probably 200 Hours or so playtime)

Reflektor (?) 300B (recent production, these where imported directly from Russia for $ 40 per Valve and where fresh out of the Box)

Svetlana 300B (recent production, same valves as from my ETM Review of the Svetlana, well broken in, probably past the 5,000 Hour mark)

Rogers brand 45's (these where donated to me by George - merci vielmals - and are used, no info on time played)

Starting with the Golden Dragon, these sounded very nicely detailed in the Legacy, with substantial authority. That  said the sound was certainly very lean, somewhat "stripped bare" and lacking in harmonic richness. Nevertheless,   as the cheapest Valve in the test it set high standards. In the Paraglows the Goldenb Dragon aalso offered a good  performance. overall in the Paraglow the Sound was a little less lean, but Bass lacked authority and impact.

Taking next the KR, this immediatly showed it had real balls, shoving out some massive bass in the Legacy. Nevertheless, the KR seemed somewaht "steely" in the upper ranges and the general "air" and "soundstaging" was lacking compared to the Golden Dragon 2A3. The test of this Valve in the Paraglow told much the same story. However, with the KR the Paraglow offered substantially fuller, higer impact Bass than with the Golden Dragon. When it came to space and treble sweetness the Golden Dragon had the clear edge over the KR in both Amplifiers.

Progressing to the Sovtek 2A3 showed an even bigger, more impacting Bass, almost too much on some tracks. The Midrange was not quite as clear as the previous two, a slight "grayness" or "veiling" was observed, this was However, VERY slight. The Treble had even more "steelyness" than the KR. The overall perception was that this Valve offered good bass, but generalised somewhat and lacked the openess of the Golden Dragon 2A3. The Sovtek 2A3 indeed sounded a lot like I remembered the Sovtek 300B Sounding from my last round of 300B  testing.

The next step was to move the speakers onto the 4-Ohm tap of my Amp and to flick the switch that offers the correct Bias for the 45, leaving the Sovteks in place. This was to triggered by Kurt Strains recent test to similar conditions.

The change was quite DRAMATIC. The Valve now sounded the best we had heard so far, much sweeter, more detailed Treble, all steelyness gone. The Bass had grown slightly less, but gained definition and crispness. Now we where really cooking. The whole system now had space, beauty, delicacy and sweetness in spades. BTW, trying the Golden Dragon 2A3 as "pseudo 45" made the sound even leaner, not recommended.... The KR was not tested in "pseudo 45" Mode as the owner had to make his exit.

The next step was to try real 45's.... Wow. Again a dramatic shift to the better, at least as large again as that from
the 2A3 Operation to the "45" Operation with the Sovtek 2A3. More space, air and delciacy. An extreme immediacy, this was it.... I'll keep that one.

However, even with > 102db/W/m sensitive Speakers the Amp now started to slightly compress orchestral crescendos. So, the Power from a 45 is almost marginal in my system for "realistic" Soundlevels. Yet it really offers a sound a class better than anything else..

Last up the Amp was converted to 300B Operation (about 2 Minutes) and first the brandnew Reflektor 300B's where tried. These immediatly showed that the additional power does help, offering a great feeling of ease on Crescendos. the Tonal Balnce was rather good, better than I remember the (older series) Sovteks from a while ago. There was Bass with great impact and strength, the Midrange was nice and open and the treble while not having the greatest delicay was neverthelss quite good.

Last up where my stalwart Svetlana 300B's. These showed therewas more on the recording than the Reflektor units could reveal. The Midrange had more bloom, more immediacy and directness. The Bass was slightly less, but much better defined and detailed. The treble had more air, basically the Svetlana soundly outperformed the Reflektor 300B AND the Sovtek 2A3 operated as such as well as the KR 2A3 on all counts.

The Golden Dragon 2A3 offered better treble than the Svetlana 300B but the balance was worse.

From this test I'd think the Sovtek 2A3 and Golden Dragon 2A3 are terrific Value. They sound substantially different, both are good to keep around. Operated as "pseudo 45" the Sovtek 2A3 gains much sonically, but the poweroutput becomes marginal with all the highest sensitivity Speakers. The Real 45 is a son of Gun, all around best, even though again limited in output Power.

Given what I paid for the Reflektor 300B it is an absolute Bargain, highly reommended. It offers good poweroutput and the sonics while worst in the whole testgroup are still very good. To wit, the Legacy Amp with the Reflekto 300B still significantly outperformed the Paraglow on all counts, regardless if the Paraglow used KR or Golden Dragon 2A3's....

Lastly the Svetlana 300B. I still think that the 300B is the best "all round" Directly Heated Triode. The Svetlana is the best I have heard so far, edging out Golden Dragon, JJ/Tesla and Sovtek/Reflektor units. I have not tried either the WE 300B or the AVVT/KR 300B lookalike but different performance Valves, so don't ask me about them, nor have tested any of the Valve Art units.

All I know that it's time to go 45 Hunting....

All valves where compared in the "Legacy" Amplifier. It allows very quick "like for like" comparisons of all sorts of 4-Pin DHT's.

All 2A3's where tested with 750 Ohm Cathode Resitance and 250V Anode - Cathode Voltage, as per RCA Specification. All 300B's where tested with 750 Cathode Resistance and 350V Anode - Cathode Voltage. The 45's and the 2A3's as Pseudo 45's where operated with 1K5 Cathode Resitance and 250V Anode - Cathode Voltage.

Heaters where set to either 2.5V or 5V DC.

The "Legacy" is a DIY unit based around the Edison 60 Kit Amplifier chassis and Transformers. The unit uses a EL84 in Penthode mode as Input/Driver Stage, I use a Mullard E84L.

The Output Valve operates in self bias, with adjustable DC Heaters in a very specific hookup scheme that allows voltage regulated Heaters (LT1085) to be used without the usual negative sonics. The Cathode Resistor is switchable between 750 Ohm (2A, 300B) and 1K5. All Capacitors used are of the highest quality.

Around the Driver Penthode Ansar Supersound metalised Polyprop Cap's are used, bypassed with ERO KP1832 Foil & Film Cap's (0.075uF & 3600pF) in parallel with NSF Polystyren (2700pF) and Lemco Silvered Mica (2200oF). This is the Bypass Combo recommended to me by Holger Stein from Steinmusik in Germany  and works extremely well. It is used on all Capacitors in the Circuit, PSU and Signal. The Coupling Cap to the 300B is a ERO KP1832 Foil & Film (bypassed), the Output Valve Cathode decoupling Capacitor again is Ansar (bypassed).

The PSU is also completely based around Ansar Capacitors. All these Ansar Capacitors are encased in metal (aluminum) cans with a damping agent and made from much thicker film than common (in for example Solen Cap's). IMHO these outperform any of the Black Gate's that I have tried (not many admittedly).

The PSU is Valve Rectified (2 pcs GZ34 - at the moment Russian production ones - I have Mullards around), Valve Regulated (2 pcs 6AS7 Svetlana, EF86 Svetlana and a Philips ZZ1000/8228 Voltage Reference).

The only electrolytic Capacitors on this Amp are in the Output Valve Heater Supply, two pcs Nichicon 10,000uF 35V as reservoir and several Sanyo Os-Con's around the LT1085 Regulator.

Basically, the Amp is of a level of Quality exceeding that of almost all available commercial products known to me, excepting Gordon Rankings designs. It has so far handily seen off ALL commers.

Anyway, this Amp was used with all Valves, the KR and Golden Dragon Valves where also tried in a pair of Paraglows. The Sovtek 2A3 could not be tested in that Amp as one of the two units started oscillating with the Sovteks in the Sockets. The Paraglows where build by a friend and are also quite tweaked up.

     Later Thorsten