[jdandy]

One of the pleasures of owning tube gear is being able to tube roll. A good analogy would be buying a dozen donuts at Dunkin' Donuts. Sure, they're all donuts, but the glazed, the chocolate covered cake, the powdered sugar and cinnamon, the jelly donuts, and the coconut covered donuts each have their unique tastes. That's why you get as many flavors as it takes to make up the dozen. Tubes are like that, too. Sure, they're all just glass vacuum tubes, but each one has a respective flavor, albeit an audio essence that separates it from the others. That's what makes it so much fun to tube roll. It is the hunt for the uncharted essence a new tube brings to the sound stage that spurs vacuum heads to keep searching, even when we are gleefully happy with the tubes we presently have in service.

I couldn't help myself. I had to test the new Gold Lion small tubes in my pair of MC275 MkV amplifiers. The porcelain tube sockets are now sporting brand new Gold Lion 12AX7, 12AT7 tubes, as well as the Gold Lion KT88 power tubes. I installed additional Gold Lion 12AX7 tubes in the C1000T preamplifier a month or so ago, so now the entire two channel tube system is operating with a full compliment of Gold Lions tubes. The 12AX7 and 12AT7 tubes look great, too. They have the Lion stenciled on the glass envelope, and the pins are gold plated and gleaming.

I have had the tubes operating in the amps for 21 hours now, and I am thoroughly impressed with their performance. I don't know if it has anything to do with the synergy of all the Gold Lion tubes working together, but the sound produced is so open and so full of life it is amazing. Transparency is off the chart. From the deepest lows to the top of the audio spectrum and everything in between, there is nothing I can find fault with. It is all there, rich harmonics, the organic sense and feel of real instruments in the air, complete blackness in the silence, dynamics that soar with immediate impact, and razor sharp focus of the details in all sonic signatures. Nothing is missing in the sweetness of the female voice, the richness of the male voice, the lingering decay of piano and guitar strings, the natural timbre and overtones of acoustic and wind instruments. The Gold Lions are neutral without exaggeration, and deliver a rewarding audio experience. I am in total awe of the way the studio system is performing with the Gold Lion tube compliments in the pair of MC275's and the C1000T. These tubes are fantastic. I don't believe there is any reason to search any longer. These valves are the cat's meow.