Made by Philips-owned Mazda factory (La Radiotechnique) in Suresnes, France (not in Holland like other Valvo ECC82 tubes) and therefore you get thedistinct French flavor, a warmer and wider (and surely more romantic) sound with more vocal forwardness than the Heerlen production.
Sound Characteristics
Immediately appealing is the super smooth highs offered by these tubes with lots of open air. The overall tonality of La Radiotechnique ECC82 tubes is warm, musical and euphonic. And this feature is even more pronounced on the French version with an unmistakable romantic flavor. The midrange displays some secondary octave nuances, which is very unique and can hardly be found even on the super high-end German tubes. Similar to Telefunken ECC802S tubes, the La Radiotechnique ECC82 tubes can create infinite levels of harmonic depth and a liquid sonic texture without altering the musicality of the sound. The bass on these is the clear winner of the Philips tubes family: articulate, accurate, deep, textured, full-bodied and powerful. The sound stage is wide, deep and well structured.
The richness of the music reproduced by these tubes surpass any other previous attempts of the other ECC82 tubes. These are extremely low noise tubes, very neutral with pin-point tonal accuracy, providing an outstanding balanced and uncolored sonic tapestry that will put your mind in a whole new dimension.
Professional Sound Evaluation
The tube worked wonderfully and sounded terrific in our professional studio setup for monitoring.
- Input: Cambridge Audio CXC V2 dedicated CD transport + Schiit Audio Bifrost 2 Multibit DAC
Measured plate current (IA): 10.84/12.22 mA - 103%/116% (100% = 10.5 mA)
NO shorts, leakage or gas. NO noise or microphonics.
Curve trace is also included in the original RoeTest report.
Appearance & Cosmetic condition
Besides the world-class sound characteristics, we still treasure this pair for its near pristine cosmetic condition given the tubes' age - nearly 100% of the paint is still intact, and the French date code etched on glass is perfectly visible:
K64 F9I1 (K64 = ECC82 long plates production gen #4, F = Suresnes, France,9 = 1959, I = September, 1 = Week 1 of the production month)
