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Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream.

RE: WE 300b and Cary 805AE

Gerado, hi. The sockets chosen for the 845 do not have a locking collar to accept the guide pin on the base. Johnson versions do. Mechanical vibration can affect the tube via air or through the chassis. I had a poured concrete sub-floor under wooden parquet as the foundation to isolate my 805's. Even with this as a start it was virtually impossible to keep microphonics down. I would experiment with vibration control - perhaps a cradle suspension, sorbothane feet, etc. The 845 has such a large internal mass I'm not sure tube dampers are going to be effective. You could try. You will note the spring suspension of the cathode in the 845 construction. Because of coefficient of expansion of thoriated tungsten and its relatively brittle nature spring suspension becomes necessary. The thoriated tunsten heater/cathode can handle high temperatures easily but mechanical shock can destroy it. When I had my 805's the list of planned improvements grew to more than 20. Rather than embark on this path I decided to trade the amps off rather than proceed. The power supply is a major sticking point. I don't believe electrolytic caps belong in the power supply unless there is no other choice. My exceptions were Black Gate and Cerafine. BG has ceased production as has Cerafine. Old stock can be found but at a price. Much better than lytics are paper in oil types and even polypropylene & oil as in the ASC. Dry polypropylene types (Unlytic, Solen) are also excellent. I have heard about a very low ESR type from Philips and Panasonic but have not tried as yet. DIY HiFi Supply also has proprietary Obligato oil and film caps that look to be very good. I want to but have not tried yet. Diodes could be replaced from garden variety silicon to Fairchild Stealth or equivalent. I have had excellent results with Stealth. I have not tried Cree yet. Ideally the power supply should be tube based - not possible with the 805. Going to ultra-fast soft recovery types like Stealth would be a step in the right direction. Those big 1200uF 450 electrolytics are a big drag on the sonics. Bypassing them is akin to whistling in the dark. It won't do any good but might make you feel better.



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