Valvo

Valvo ECC82 12AU7 O-Getter Matched Trio - Short plates – Heerlen ’63 – Near NOS

$211.50 USD

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Soundlumia's Opinion

Compared to their 45° angled big brother, these "ultra clarity" tubes are much more merciful at lossy digital sound sources such as high-definition streaming video/audio. Yet distortion in lossy sound during playback can still be heard. Dedicated CD transport or lossless playback on PC/Mac (not on mobile devices) are recommended if you want to fully unleash these tubes' amazing power in your system. Phono, if available, is highly recommended to be used as sound source because analog input is lossless by definition.

To get everyone on the same page, we will be comparing these to the Hamburg-made Valvo ECC82's with the regular getter support only, which is already an excellent choice for audiophiles looking for distinctive German tube sound: the grip is tighter with a great deal of substance added to the overall sound presentation, especially to the midrange, which feels much warmer and more intimate; the 30° getter support seems to have "bent" the sound stage as well and you are presented with a flattened panoramic view of the sound stage, which is holographic but much wider and holds so much more information: everything can be heard (or rather "seen"), whether you knew they existed before or not, or whether you think they should exist or not; the naturalness of sound is not heard on any other tubes in the sense that these tubes tell you what IS and what IS NOT in your sound, e.g. you can tell the sound of natural rain in some movies from the sound of fake rain (water poured from hoses above the stage) in other movies; the clarity of sound is "clinical" - as in how your doctor would say you are either sick or not sick and absolutely no muddiness or ambiguity in between should be allowed - perhaps that's why they can get punishing (luckily not as much as the 45° angled version) to lossy digital sound sources; the musicality is unequalled as by now the only thing left in your music for you to hear is EVERYTHING in your music as long as the sound source is right.

Professional Sound Evaluation

The pair 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

- Amplification: Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies (3rd gen) Balanced Headphone Amplifier

- Output: Focal Clear MG Pro open-back headphones

Our full tube sound review was written 100% based on the actual listening experience while this pair of tubes were running in the system described above.

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