The 5U3C is a Soviet 5U4G equivalent. It’s not bad, but you can do a lot better for not very much money, the RCA a is more incisive, and airier.
I use a KR Anniversary 5U4G rectifier, PSVane Acme’s, and a set of NOS 6c45P.
Unless you go all the way to WE417 with adapters there really aren’t a lot of options for the pre tubes, the ones with gold plated pins Woo sells aren’t worth it.
I like the PSVanes a lot, but they really do take 200+ hours to burn in, but I’ve done limited rolling of 2A3’s, I have compared them to LinLai Elites, they are about the same level, Lin Lai is a bit richer, a bit less air.
I had a Tak rectifier, but it was destroyed in shipping, so I haven’t actually heard it.
I have a few NOS 5u4g’s of which the RCA was my favorite, and I used it before I got the KR as a part of the Lampizator purchase.
It’s like the RCA in many ways but more, worth the $500 or so it costs IMO.
Soviet tubes tested for the military all have an OTK stamp. No idea what the number means.
Thanks for the tube recommendations @Polygonhell , I’m new to tubes so will be relying on the recommendations of others before I get a taste for what kind of tubes I like. Those WE417 with adapters are nice but expensive and those have been recommended to me too. There’s these new TA tubes that people are getting excited about, they are 2A3s. Expensive as well. Going to be awhile before I can afford some of these things but while I wait I’ll take a look at the RCA 5U4G.
There is a good 2A3 comparison thread on SBAF if you want to read through it.
For 2A3’s the holy grail are the NOS RCA single plates, but it’s one of those tubes where new production is comparable and in some respects better than the best NOS offerings.
I would like to try the a set of KR 2A3’s, because I’ve liked a lot of their tubes.
But the cost of rolling 4 premium 2A3’s leaves me in a find something you like and stick with it mode.
The difference with swapping the rectifier is much greater than swapping the 2A3’s, With something like this PSVane 2A3’s over the supplied EH, you gain some additional Bass control, improved resolution, maybe a tiny bit more stage, worthwhile, but it’s not night and day.
My general hype warning on anything new, is take every excited impression with a sack of salt. Tubes in particular can really get into what I last heard syndrome. It’s often hard to differentiate different from better.
I’ll give an example with the Lampizator Pacific, mine shipped to me with 4 different rectifiers, and 3 sets of tubes, a quad of T100’s (they are like big 300B’s) a quad of PX25’s and a quad of 242’s, I spent a morning swapping them out once, they are Very different tubes, but quite honestly I would have lived with any of them, the Pacific still sounded like the pacific with any of them, the trade off in the end was stage and warmth vs dynamics, and I could see someone else preferring another set.
The guy I bought it from had $8K in those tubes to make that determination.
Just don’t over think it.
For my studio t I really enjoy nos RCA 2a3 black plates which weren’t that expensive for nos rca from memory, wonder if those would also work well in the woo or not
Is it safe to assume that these differences will be consistent throughout different tube amps that use the same tubes?
For example, would you find the same increase in air of a psvane acme across a woo and a DNA?
Sort of, IME yes to a point, it’s quite possible to have two amps using the same tubes at very different operating points, but specifically DNA to WA33 (I own both) while the amps sound nothing like each other, the characteristics of the tubes hold.
So after back and forth with Upscale Audio, I’m shipping back the WA33 to them as they are not willing to cover the shipping and potential cost of fixing the buzzing with Woo directly. They did offer me a small compensation but I don’t know that’ll cover even the shipping back and forth for this beast.
That’s pretty disappointing but I want to have a perfect amp for the money I spent…
That’s too bad. Hopefully you’ll find a suitable replacement soon.
It’s unfortunate, did you ever try it at a friends house?
So it looks like 3ES is a hybrid amp, not a true tube one. Honestly, based on sound, Im guessing wa33 is the same. the amps still stand on their own SQ wise, but the marketing is fairly deceptive IMO
I’d be skeptical of anything that originates on Head-Case about woo anything, they have an axe to grind there.
But it’s quite possible it’s using an op amp. You can probably just email jack woo. He’s usually responsive to emails.
I dont trust their opinion on “how good” something is (they only req shit they have financial interests in) but I do trust them to not lie about the actual design of an amp they are analyzing.
My opinion is that this and the price are the only two things that matter. How they get to that sound quality doesn’t really matter as long as it’s robust and safe (meaning it won’t die or ruin any other gear along the way).
That’s why I don’t care much for opening gear or measurements. I trust my ears at home, and sometimes others who I’ve learned to respect that at least can steer me in a direction or away from it. One should try a few things before he spends $14K on an amp like one of those guys did. Reference and experience are important in this hobby.
I get both sides, the sound is what you pay for, but if it was actually a hybrid that’s misleading nonetheless. This being said, I’d say this is a lot of reaction for something that isn’t even confirmed yet and a lot of people dogpiling without all that much info
Imo this matters the most, but a company being purposefully misleading or even outright lieing truly do make me a bit remis to support them.
Eh, I mean, ideally you would, but that’s simply often flat out not possible. I think basicaly everything I’ve ever bogght has been a blind buy because I just can’t figure out how to demo the stuff I’m interested in
I just wonder why it’s there, while the original analysis might be correct, the more surprising part of it is that it’s a cathode follower, rather than the op amp.
Also doesn’t really jive with the high temperatures the WA33 and I assume the 3ES run at.
Who actually drew the schematics, appears from the comments they weren’t drawn by the headcase poster, so who knows if they are accurate.
I read the thread as KG confirming the schematic.
@sa11297 @M0N how is temp of 3es VS wa33? I remeber it being way way cooler but it also hadn’t be on for half a day any time I heard it
I agree. I wouldn’t buy from a company I can’t trust unless it’s factored into the asking price to make it worth it for me. I don’t take businesses personally. They offer a product and I decide if I want to buy it.
I’m not necessarily saying you have to audition five $14k amps and do it at home before you buy something. You’ve tried enough stuff to figure out if what you’re hearing is worth your time and money and fits your preferences. At least a rough estimate of how good something is while you’re listening to it. You also know you’re taking a certain risk and might sell something for some loss when blind buying. Blindly going deep on a 3ES Elite without hearing any estats amp ever, which is what he said he did, doesn’t make much sense to me. It’s hard enough for most of us to compare sound quality and amps when it’s just regular gear so jumping to estats like that smh