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EAT Valves Reviewed


  • January 4, 2009

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Having been well and truly educated by manufacturers such as Croft and AudioValve, I am loath to enter the 'premium valve' fray. Both have shown that intelligent design can more than compensate for tube variation and quality; AudioValve's circuitry is so clever that you can even mix tube in certain of their amps. What they're both saying is the valve codicil to 'Frankly, life is too short to piss around with cables and accessories': Get your components right in the first place.

Conversely, I can't rule out the fetish for upscale replacement tubes, having long ago learned about and experienced matched pairs, brand-vs-brand quality (e.g. Mullard vs Telefunken, M-O vs the rest, etc), military spec over civilian grades and other pursuits. And I hate to admit, to the marrow, that you can hear differences, and they are NOT subtle. The problem is that neither are they consistent, and simply replacing stock tubes with something of the hot-rodded variety won't necessarily yield an improvement. For instance, I can almost guarantee you that valve substitution in a Croft pre-amp will ruin the sound.

So now, in the 21st Century, along comes a Czech operation with the utterly ludicrous name of EAT. [EAT is an acronym for European Audio Team, further proof that you shouldn't come up with international names if English is not your first language.] And while they exhibit Swiss rather than Eastern European standards of production and presentation - their tubes could have been made by a watch manufacturer - they also exhibit Swiss pricing and that loathesome 'former Commie-now-neo-Capitalist' greed. To me, £140 for a KT-88, £288 for a matched pair and £599 for a matched quartet is somehow lunatic when eBay shows unused, boxed GEC KT-88s for £56 each.

So here we have, yet again, KK holding back his bile in an attempt to be fair to a brand for which he has mild contempt based solely on prejudice. Oh, if only the EATs were crap! Such I could enjoy! But they're not. In fact, they're sensational.

EAT says that their KT-88 Diamond (they also manufacture 300Bs, 6550s and other popular tubes) were conceived to operate securely as replacements in situations as demanding as 100W from a pair of valves in Class AB1 operation. Considering that most 100W/ch, KT-88-equipped amps in my experience use four per channel, then EAT is being very conservative; most users are unlikely to hammer these into 100W per pair operation. More likely, you'll be demanding a mere 50W from two EATs. And in the case of the review set-up, I only asked them to yield ca. 40W per pair/channel.

Regarding the valve matching, the price increases reflect the extra labour and the higher rejection rate, as opposed to measuring and selling a single valve. Absolute Sounds confirmed that their chief technician retested some sets, and was staggered by the precision of the matching. If running utterly identical pairs or quads is one of your fixations, the EATs will vindicate you.

Because I have been using the PrimaLuna Prologue Two as my budget reference amp, and as PrimaLuna shares distribution with EAT in the UK, I asked the importer to set up a Prologue Two with a matched quartet of EAT KT-88s. This would enable me to warm-up both amps at the same time, instead of doing tube swaps which would add a half-hour between listening tests. It was as close to A/B testing as possible, requiring only the swapping of speaker and source leads. Speakers, by the way, consisted of PMC DB1+, Rogers LS3a, Rogers LS3/5a and - ulp! - Sonus Faber Guarneri.

It took, oh, all of two seconds to justify their existence, even in an amp costing a mere £999 - or only £400 more than the set of valves on its own. I know, I know, I know: there's nothing rational about stuffing £600's worth of glass into an amp £1 shy of a grand...or is there?

Think about it. Even though the measurements indicate no gain in power, the sound is somehow more robust, certainly giving a subjective impression of increased wattage. The bottom end was transformed from already-credible performance to something I'd associate with, say, £2500's worth of Audio Research: convincing weight, palpable mass. The treble was cleaner, faster and still without the sort of edge that causes fatigue. But the real gains - however improved the frequency extremes - were in the midband.

Indisputably amazing though the PrimaLuna is (and we needn't go into its price advantage due to Chinese origins), the EATs cranked it up another notch. A notch. The first and most blatant gain came in transparency. Although the stock tubes are good by any standards, the EATs peeled away a layer of texturing, akin to removing an extra speaker grille. The net effect, especially on vocals such as Joss Stone's or Aimee Mann's, was to increase intimacy by strengthening the sensation of the singer being in the room. Spatially, it was as if they moved forward a few feet.

This benefit also revealed its worth with cluttered recordings. For listeners who love to zoom in on a specific instrument, the extra clarity and openness make it much easier to focus on a detail - especially low-level ones typically masked or overwhelmed by louder sounds. And yet there was never any sensation of listening to 'multiple mono' or whatever term you would use to describe a cluster of separate, disembodied sounds in a single playing field. When it came to harmonising a group into a musical whole, the singers' individuality was retained, while the sense of an ensemble was left intact.

If that sounds like so much blather, try any of the recent CDs from the Blind Boys Of Alabama, or any good Persuasions recording. Choose a single voice on which to concentrate, then ease back and enjoy the group as a whole - the EATs enable you to do both with equal facility. It's the exact opposite of trying to see those 3D images buried in patterned pictures, which could provide an instant headache for some.

There's one other gain I simply cannot overvalue, and that's the attack-and-decay capabilities of the EATs. As any tube diehard will tell you, solid-state fundamentalists always insist that trannies are faster, more crisp, with better attack. (What they don't tell you is that the price you pay for the speed is a migraine. Hmmm. Just like the chemical equivalent.) The EATs are quick - almost ridiculously so. Put on a disc by any virtuoso known for rapid plucking or fingering - from manic guitarists to a young Louis Armstrong or Louis Prima. No muddle, no delays, no upsetting the timing. Yup - even the PRAT* prats could learn to appreciate tubes.

If my sudden conversion to both the acceptance of over-priced glassware the purchasing of products from countries for which I have neither love nor respect seems a non sequitur, let's just say that I'm doing my best to keep my non-audio influences from tainting my experience. Sure, I'd love it if the EATs were made in the UK - as much as I wish the PrimaLuna was, too. But they're not. Which shouldn't stop you from buying them, if you believe in free trade...even if your amplifier is worth less than a set of EATs.

Imagine: if £600's worth of EATs can turn the £999 PrimaLuna into a reasonable facsimile of a £3000 amp, what will they do for an aged but beloved Mac 275? An elderly Audio Research amp? Any tired Jadis? What we have here, my friends, is the valve amp equivalent of Viagra.

Absolute Sounds 0208 971 3909

* 'Pace, Rhythm and Timing'

SIDEBAR: EAT Valve Type KT88 Specification:
Amplification Factor 4
Filament Voltage 6.3 Volts
Filament current 1.6 Ampere
Grid Voltage -55 Volts
Transconductance 12 mA/V
Plate Voltage 250 V
Plate Current 162 mA
Plate Dissipation 40.5 Watts
Power output in class: 13.5 Watts

Keywords

Tube amp valuves

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