Siemens CCa Gray Shields Munich

Soundlumia's Opinion

Made for BP (Bundespost - German Federal Post of Berlin) by Siemens, later also approved for military use and various broadcast applications, these tubes carry a long and mysterious history, which might take months to recount. Yet we picky audiophiles approve of their superior qualities...on all accounts: matched triode, low noise screening, minimum 10,000-hour heater life expectancy, carefully controlled frame grid winding and anti-vibration build - this is about as good as it can ever get in the entire vintage tube world! 

As a major step-up of Siemens E88CC, the CCa tube naturally posses all the greatest traits of the family: the airy and transparent natural tone unrivaled even to this day, the extended yet never tizzy top end, the incisive, neutral and balanced midrange presentation, the clearly defined and deeply controlled bass that's always there with the perfect amount of weight. All these fantastic sound characteristics multiplied by three and that's what you should expect from the Siemens CCa.  And the most defining sound characteristic of Siemens tubes is their ability to retrieve the deepest levels of detail in sound, and these hidden sonic layers can go a long way to reveal the subtle ambient clues that help complete building a true 3D holographic sound reproduction. The sound stage of Siemens CCa is amazingly wide and feels like the holographic field gets "flattened" into a panoramic view of your music, still curvy and enveloping, and with added head room - nothing in the sound can escapes your ears (or eyes.) While as quiet and analytical as the Telefunken CCa/E88CC tubes, Siemens CCa also creates a warmer, smoother and sweeter German tone (and very German) that's rarely heard elsewhere.